Save, of course, for the wrath of Pael.
Morning came, and the hung-over soldiers unknowingly stood in line for their rations of hellcat stew. The meaty slop helped take the edge off the residual ale induced grogginess. The hellcat’s haunch-meat had a succulent sausage flavor. That pleasant taste masked the evil taint that Pael’s experimental spell casting had left upon the meat.
Pael was gone. King Inkling, in Glendar’s body, explained Roark’s absence to his other bodyguards, with the suggestion of a secret mission involving Pael. They wanted as little to do with the wizard as possible. They accepted the information, and as good soldiers do, asked no questions and showed no further concern.
Inkling spent the day’s march getting used to riding a horse, and feeling out the confining body of King Glendar. The imp was pleased that Glendar’s mind was cruel and weak. At least the mental aspect of his new home was comfortable. A few nights later, a bit of Glendar’s consciousness fought to the forefront long enough to get Inkling to experience a woman at a roadside inn in the Dakaneese Town of Pearsh. After that night, Inkling gave his host enough headway to allow himself to tap Glendar’s knowledge of human ways. It wasn’t long before Inkling was enjoying the flesh of women as much as, if not more so, than Glendar ever had.
The towns of Owask and Osvoin were ripe with Wildermont slave women. Inkling didn’t know it, but his obsession with human sexuality kept him in perfect character. Not even the Duke of Portsmouth, one of Glendar’s captain’s, and a man who had spent much time around Glendar over the years, suspected that the King was not in control of his own faculties.
For Inkling, the farther south the march took them, the more he grew to like his new place in the world. He figured he would be disappointed when they finally reached O’Dakahn and they had to start looking for ships to carry them on to Seaward. He was wrong however.
O’Dakahn was a cesspool of lust and greed, full of whores and gambling halls. Anything you could imagine could be had for a price. It was all free to Glendar, of course. The new King of Westland had brought with him gifts, which caused King Ra’Gren to cater to his every whim. As King Inkling and Glendar’s four hundred soldiers boarded the three ships, King Ra’Gren provided for them, he found he was more than content. As they say, “It’s good to be the king.”
It was only later, that Inkling began to have regrets about his situation. A human body can sometimes get very uncomfortable. He, and most of the men aboard his particular ship, began to fall ill, and when the men began to vomit blood and die horribly, the other two ships started to keep a distance. As it turned out, being a King held little weight with superstitious sailors and ships’ captains at sea, especially when everyone on your ship had the plague.
Chapter 41
King Jarrek, at the moment, was a bitter man. Not only had he been forced to flee his own lands, he had watched as some of his closest companions died trying to defend his exit. He’d seen the wizard Keedle, his longtime adviser and confidant, blown from the wall like so much fodder. Men, nobles, friends and family alike had died around him in their hard earned, red King’s Guard armor.
He had watched on helplessly as the Ladies’ Twin Towers were toppled by the Westland wizard. Inside them, his own mother and his betrothed, along with most every notable mother, daughter, and sister in all of Castlemont had been killed in the devastating crumble.
He had seen soldier after soldier sizzled in their tracks, and then was held in shocked horror as the pride of this kingdom, the millennia old mountain fortress Castlemont, was leveled by the magic of a single man.
Targon, the Highwander wizard, said it was done by demon’s might, but King Jarrek had seen with his own eyes that it was Pael. When he had attended Glendar’s Coming of Age celebration a few years ago, the spindly, old egg-headed wizard had given him the shivers. And Glendar, oh what a disappointment to old King Balton that boy must’ve been. The only thing keeping Jarrek from crumbling himself was the hope that he might someday get the chance to face Glendar and Pael; that, and the fact that somebody had to go to Dakahn and free his people from the slavers.