FREE STORIES 2012(26)

Long minutes passed. The ground trembled. He looked up, saw the vast ship on the wall disobey gravity, without chemical explosions or a fusion inferno, the ark lifted from the depth of the rift and coasted out into space.





THE AGE OF THE WARRIOR

by Hank Reinhardt





The chatter and gaiety of the feast had been stilled, and although the candles still burned brightly, fear and apprehension darkened the Great Hall of Castle Glaun. Rank was forgotten as lord and lady, townsman and guardsman mingled in small, quiet clusters. The low murmur of their voices would still as the door to the ducal chambers opened, but picked up as soon as only a servingman or maid appeared.

The evening had started out well enough. Lyulf II, King of Lyvane, accompanied by his retinue and the Duke of Jagai, had arrived earlier in the day. The Duke of Glaun had been well prepared for his royal guests, and the feast he had served was splendid. The recent treaty between King Lyulf II and Togai, King of the Shang, was an event to be well remembered, and the Duke had spared no expenses to celebrate it.

It was right after an impromptu wrestling match, won by Asgalt, Duke of Jagai, against a young guardsman, that the blow fell. A messenger arrived bearing the ill news that the Shang had invested Castle Kels, and it looked as if the castle would fall within a few days.

Pandemonium broke loose, and the King with his closest advisors retired to the private chambers of the Duke of Glaun.

In the chambers the King sat hunched over a table, poring over a map as if seeking to change the very lay of the land with his thoughts. Around the table stood several of his ministers, while in the corner the two Dukes engaged in a heated argument.

The King glanced with annoyance at the two men, and with a tone of less than regal forbearance snarled, "Will you two stop that damned bickering and get over here! The whole kingdom is threatened and you two argue over propriety!"

Asgalt, about to make a point, stopped in mid-sentence and looked at the King. "Sire, I do not argue, I merely defend myself."

The Duke of Glaun, Colwen by name, bowed from the waist and answered. "Your Pardon Sire, but I feel that it is unseemly for a Duke of the Realm to wrestle a common guardsman, even if the man is a champion."

Asgalt grunted in disgust. "Bah, you only object because I win." Lyulf glared at the two, then in his most Kingly voice, "We do not care about wrestling, or the proprieties. We do care about advice!"

Colwen, Duke of Glaun, walked over with dignity and stationed himself behind the King. He was a tall man, with hair as white as snow, and a face lined with years of care and worry.

However the Duke of Jagai merely ambled over to the front of the King, and stood looking down at him. He saw a man full grown, calm and stern, well suited to rule, but in his mind's eye he also saw a young boy, gawping up at him in awe and wonder.

Asgalt pointed to the map. "Look, you can see what has to be done, or at least tried."

The King shook his head. "I said no."

Asgalt slapped his thighs with anger. He was a large man, with cold blue eyes shaded by iron gray hair. Thick necked, running into massive shoulders and chest, with arms to match. Only the iron gray of his hair and the thickening mid-section betrayed his age. He turned away, then turned back again.

"You young puppy, were you not a man grown I'd shake some sense into you, King or no. By Kimwalt's Eyes, all you have to do is look!"

The ministers glanced at each other in embarrassed silence but the Duke of Glaun spoke up in shocked reprimand.

"Your Grace! You can't speak to the King like that! It isn't proper!"

Asgalt swelled and roared. "Proper! Proper! With Shang soon to be riding through every hamlet, butchering and pillaging 'till their black hearts' content, and you say 'Proper!'"

He shook his head in wonder, then continued in the same roaring voice. "Colwen, you were one of the best fighting men I have ever seen, but"— His voice trailed, and he spoke to the King in a lower voice. "Do you remember when Colwen and I held the breach during the siege of this castle? Fifteen years ago it was, and he wanted me to stand to the left rear, as he was borned to the Ducal Chair!"

The King, despite his woes, grinned. He had heard this story at least once a month for the past fifteen years. But then reality returned, and his face tightened.

"Enough of this. Togai has broken the treaty, the Shang are marching, and the Kingdom has to be warned and the levy raised. I don't have time to sit and listen to your constant bickering."

Asgalt nodded, dropped his pretended fury and spoke seriously. "No, you don't. Nor do you have time to send a messenger the long way around the Blue Mountains. The Shang are already at Kels, and before you can move the long way around, they will be here, and the main army will be moving. Before the levy is raised, Lyvane will be open."