The Blinded Journey Read online

  “There is a gatehouse,” Weber reported.

  “And some of the tree branches looked scorched,” Rachel added.

  “Stop there. No visitors are allowed,” a voice spoke, a voice that Kendel guessed was one of Lumen’s guards.

  “What do we do?” Weber asked Kendel.

  “Let Dwad take me to the gate,” Kendel answered. He hoped he could explain enough to the guard to allow them entry, and draw the attention of Prince Lumen, who he knew would be astonished by the caliber of the visitors.

  “Come no closer,” the guard’s voice sounded as Dwad led Kendel ten steps forward before stopping at the command.

  “What monster is here? Alert the lodge!” the voice shouted loudly, apparently to another guard at the gate. A bell began to toll.

  “We are here as refuges from Palatenland, outcasts from the Sunob palace. We wish to seek shelter with Prince Lumen,” Kendel explained.

  “We don’t need anyone from the palace. We’ve had them and it was a disaster. Turn and depart before we use force,” the guard exclaimed.

  Kendel needed to speak to someone with higher authority, he knew. He needed to let Lumen himself hear that the ailing king of Palatenland was at the gate. He counted on Lumen reacting with astonished courtesy. To have the king as his guest would give Lumen a chance to display the nobility and courtesy that Kendel believed was fundamentally important to the unseated prince. It would also give him something like a bargaining chip with Beches, if Lumen was inclined to bargain with the evil nobleman, which Kendel doubted.

  And finally, it would bring Agata’s father into Lumen’s lodge, and Kendel suspected that the connection with the lovely princess would be exceedingly important to the prince as well, maybe even the matter of greatest importance.

  “Have you sent for a nobleman?” Kendel asked. “Send for Lord Cliff, who I know is listened to by the Prince. Or,” he remembered the lady of the court who had watched over Agata, “Lady Anna.

  “Although,” he belatedly recollected the society he was in, “I don’t suppose you’d call a lady out for a gatehouse conversation.”

  “No, we are not uncivilized savages,” the guard agreed. His tone seemed slightly less hostile. “You seem to know something of the Prince’s court. Have you been here before?” he asked.

  “I am aware of much,” Kendel knew he had to be careful. Just as he wanted to avoid telling his Sunob companions that he had occupied Parker’s body, he wanted to avoid making the same confession at Lumen’s lodge. Neither group was likely to trust him if they thought he was a demon capable of possessing others.

  “I’ve spoken with other guests of the Prince,” he explained.

  “Kendel, what’s going on?” Elline’s voice sounded from behind him. “Is there a problem?”

  “The guard is just being careful,” Kendel replied, turning his head to try to project his voice to the group behind him. “It is his duty to his lord, and they did have the attack of the Mormo monsters just a few weeks ago, so I’m sure they are skittish.”

  “We have not told anyone about that battle. How do you know?” the guard asked, suspicious once more. “Are you in league with the monsters? Is that why you’ve brought one here?”

  “There is a squad approaching the gate,” Dwad informed him.

  “I wish to speak to the commander,” Kendel spoke loudly.

  “I am captain of the shift,” a voice replied. “We order you to depart from this vicinity before we use force to evict you.”

  Kendel heard low voices murmuring, but he couldn’t make out the words.

  “Are you Lord Cliff?” Kendel asked. He couldn’t remember what Cliff’s voice sounded like. He only remembered that Cliff had been arrogant at times, but also reasonable at times, and always loyal to Lumen whatever his mood had been.

  The answer began with a snort of derision. “Who are you, the God of War, that Lord Cliff would come to see you?” the officer asked.

  “I am a visitor, asking in a polite way, that someone with the authority to make the decision to allow us to enter, do so. We’re not here to battle; we’re here in peace, and Prince Lumen can ensure that he plays a role in bringing peace to Palatenland if he will meet the esteemed guests who are standing here,” Kendel couldn’t help but let an edge enter his voice.

  “He knows a great deal about us,” the voice of the guard spoke to the officer, loudly enough for Kendel to hear.

  “Do you remember the night when Agata and Parker escaped? The night the Mormos attacked?” Kendel asked. “Of course you do.” He wasn’t going to easily achieve his goal, he realized sadly. Not if he tried to hide his identity; it was pointless.

  He would have to admit he had been Parker, in order to tell his tale and demonstrate his sincerity. And, he expected, in the process, he was going to lose his new Sunob friends because of his appearance of insincerity and duplicity. He felt both sad and angry.

  “I want to tell you that I fought against the monsters that night to help Agata escape. It was the right thing to do,” he said, as he heard murmurs from the people behind him as well as those in front of him.

  “Was the Princess held captive here?” Grace’s voice asked.

  “Not exactly,” Kendel answered. “She enjoyed her time here with the Prince, but she also knew she had an obligation to move on,” he said.

  “Do you remember the magic I used?” Kendel spoke to the guards. He focused for only a second, then called out the blue energy and almost simultaneously the green energy, creating a new display of the energy, a round disk that he spread out like a ceiling above the vicinity of the gate.

  “I used it to attack then, and I’m not trying to attack anyone now,” Kendel shouted over the sounds of alarm among the guards at the gate. The alarm bell began to toll vigorously, warning the lodge of danger.

  “We thought it was Parker who conjured that magic!” the guard officer shouted.

  “I was Parker!” Kendel exploded. “I possessed his body and his movements! I was here. I escaped with Agata. I used my powers that night. I heard Lumen claim that he is the descendant of Crain and has the right to be the king of Palatenland!”

  “Kendel!” he heard Grace’s anguished cry behind him.

  “You’ve betrayed us!” Elline swore loudly. “You’re giving the king to his sworn enemy!”

  A deafening crack of thunder sounded directly overhead, and there was an outburst of screams from all sides at that moment.

  You blundering little boy! You cannot do anything right! Shaiss’s voice was directly overhead, and then he felt a powerful slap to the back of his head that sent him tumbling forward head over heels.

  “Hello, your divineness,” he heard Dwad say calmly.

  “I think you could have given better guidance. I hope your sister does better than this or Miriam is never going to see the light of day again, though I doubt her chances anyway,” the goddess’s voice was steely.

  “You!” Kendel heard Shaiss call out to someone at the scene, and he imagined the terror in that person’s heart at that moment. “Send for Lumen – now! Don’t dawdle.”

  “All of you, go into the grounds of the lodge. This is your new home. The boy made a good choice in bringing you here, though I’m sure he wasn’t aware of how good it was,” Shaiss ordered the rest of the refugee party.

  “Where is your sister?” Shaiss asked Dwad.

  “Fontaine’s probably on the closest water,” Dwad answered.

  “Oh, that’s right. She has her limitations too. You’ll take the boy to see her as soon as all this mess is settled,” the goddess replied. “Everyone get moving; what are you all standing about waiting for?” she urged, and Kendel heard the sounds of people immediately breaking into motion.

  “Here lad,” Dwad’s hand gripped Kendel’s and he felt himself lifted to his feet.

  “I trusted you!” Elline said sharply as he passed by.

  “Shaiss doesn’t like you, your friends don’t like you, your hosts don’t like you,
” Dwad commented. “It’s a good thing my sister is taking you away from here.”

  “You were Parker?” Grace’s voice shook with emotion.

  “I was, but I never did him any harm, and it wasn’t my plan,” Kendel answered quickly. “It’s where Miriam put me when she brought me here the first time.”

  “When he ran away with the Princess, was that him or you?” she asked.

  “That was me. Flora was the princess, and I was Parker, and we ran away so that she wouldn’t be forced to marry Beches’s crony,” Kendel told the lady of the court. “But Flora and I never did anything inappropriate, and Parker and the Princess never did anything inappropriate either. He likes you,” Kendel added, hoping to somehow repair some breach he might have caused between the two young members of the court.

  “You were the one in the temple?” Vivienne asked.

  “It was me,” Kendel confirmed.

  “Let’s go, lad. It doesn’t do to keep a goddess waiting,” Dwad began to lead him forward, and Kendel stumbled along with the dwarf, his hand surrounded by the hard, cool hand of the dwarf. They walked for several minutes, and Kendel imagined passing the scenes of the battle that had played out when he and Flora and Genniae had escaped. He heard the sound of even more boots, and suspected that Prince Lumen himself was approaching in response to the appearance and summons of the goddess at his gate.

  “Lumen,” Kendel heard Shaiss’s familiar voice call, “these people are here seeking safety and protection after fleeing from the palace in Sunob. Among them is the greatest knight of the land, Sir Elline, and the ill king of the land, Ardur,” the goddess spoke. “You will treat them with respect and courtesy and allow them to remain here as long as they wish. Is that understood by you and all who answer to you?”

  “Yes, my goddess,” Lumen’s voice was strong.

  “I will send this agent of mine out into the world on a quest, one with multiple duties,” she said, and Kendel was sure that she gestured to him. He felt his head alite with a thought she planted there, one that made him gasp.

  “Kendel, tell them what you will do,” she spoke aloud to him.

  “I will find Princess Agata and Parker the squire, and I will direct them to return to this lodge to meet with all of you,” Kendel blurted out the instruction he had been given.

  “Among other things, that is correct,” Shaiss confirmed.

  “Now, you will go meet you guide, who will take you to the next destination on your journey,” the goddess continued with her crisp, uninterrupted instructions. “And with you will go the married couple you brought from Sunob, and on the journey, they will be able to stop at a sacred spring, where they will collect a skin of the water, and bring it back here.

  “You will administer it to the king,” Shaiss must have been instructing Rachel, Kendel assumed, “and the water shall cure him, restoring him to consciousness.

  “And when all these things come together, I expect you to use whatever good sense you possess, and make the obvious decisions you need to make to strengthen Palatenland,” her voice ended with a note of decisive finality.

  You will follow your guide to the end of the journey, and then you will fetch the companion you need to go on to see the wizard, to finish your mission to Miriam. Do not fail, Shaiss spoke directly to Kendel in his soul, unheard by the others in the gathering.

  There was another crack of thunder, and then a sound that reminded Kendel of a jet taking off, followed by an immediate pandemonium of babbling voices.

  “Come on, special human. We need to get you going on the way to carry out the Punisher’s plans,” Dwad tugged on him.

  “Wait, we have to get the others in our group,” Kendel replied. “We’re supposed to take them with us. But before that, can you take me to see Sir Elline?” he asked.

  “He’s up in the middle of a big crowd. Follow me,” Dwad began pulling Kendel forward. Within steps of their beginning Kendel felt and heard the dwarf bumping and knocking people out of his way as he plowed forward.

  “What comes before us now? Will the surprises of this day never end?” Kendel heard Lumen’s voice thirty seconds later.

  “This is the boy who Shaiss named as her errand boy,” Elline spoke, “and this dwarf has been our guide this morning to come to your lodge.

  “Kendel,” Elline spoke. “I regret my rash judgement of you. You were truly doing the work of the goddess by bringing us here, and if all comes to pass as Shaiss ordains, if we see our king come back to life and our princess return to us, then the world and Palatenland will be in much better shape,” the knight said.

  “You are the one who they say possessed the squire who was here with the fair princess?” Lumen spoke.

  “I am. I was here, and I escaped with Agata on the night the monsters came,” Kendel agreed.

  “You will not seek to possess any of my people now?” Lumen asked.

  “I don’t have the power to do that on my own,” Kendel answered quickly. “And I don’t want to. I’m getting ready to leave anyway, and I may not be back here for a long time, if ever,” he said.

  Waxen, Gayl, are you ready to go?” he asked.

  “Can we take a moment to at least get some fresh supplies from this lodge before we leave?” Waxen asked. “And how long are we going to be traveling?”

  Chapter 19

  “She’s your twin? That’s not true,” Gayl stoutly declared two hours later.

  “We are indeed brother and sister, born on the same day,” a fluid female voice spoke.

  “You look completely – totally – different,” Gayl insister.

  “I never said we were identical twins,” Dwad answered mildly, and Kendel imagined the dwarf gave a shrug.

  Kendel was feeling a fatalistic sense of having no choice but to go where Shaiss commanded him to go.

  He and Gayl and Waxen had been taken to the lodge with the rest of the party, where they’d been given a few minutes to freshen up, and then given bags of supplies hastily collected for them by Lumen’s staff. Then there had been a round of farewells.

  For Gayl and Waxen, the farewells had been simple and straightforward promises to see one another soon, when the pair would return with the magic water that promised to restore life to the long-unconscious king.

  For Kendel, the farewells were more complicated. He had seemed to be a traitor just minutes earlier, until excused by a goddess, and his departure seemed destined to be of a more permanent nature. There was no clear expectation that he would see any of the people at the lodge again.

  His parting words with the adults from the Sunob group were courteous, and he received a warm farewell from Elline. When the young ladies who were closer to his peers in age approached him, they were much more emotional.

  “Thank you for saving us Kendel,” Vivienne’s voice spoke to him, and then she hugged him, something which startled and pleased him as a breach of the social boundaries of the society they were in.

  “And thanks for taking us on such an adventurous journey!” Sophie spoke immediately, and then also hugged Kendel as soon as Vivienne ended her quick clinch.

  And then a soft hand gently held his hand. “You have made an impression on us all,” Grace told him. “I’m only now beginning to appreciate how complicated your life in this world must seem.

  “I’ll never forget you,” she added. “You’ve been a true friend,” and she too hugged him, then gave him a kiss on the neck, and released her hold on him.

  “Come along, lover boy,” Dwad had told him then.

  “Before you go,” Prince Lumen’s voice was surprisingly close by. “You will tell Agata when you see her that I will care for her father as if he were my own, and I long to see her again, won’t you?”

  “Yes, my lord,” Kendel agreed, and then felt Dwad starting to tug on him, and the small foursome of travelers began walking down the drive and away from the lodge.

  “We almost had a chance to live like royalty in that lodge, and instead we’re back out traipsi
ng through the countryside,” Gayl began to complain immediately. “Have I ever mentioned that I’m a girl born and bred in the city, and I have no use for the countryside?” she said.

  “I might have heard you mention it one time or a hundred,” her husband answered with a laugh.

  “Ow!” he said a moment later, making Kendel hide a smile.

  “We’ll be back at the lodge in a few days, and we’ll be heroes for bringing the water that brings the King back to life,” Waxen told his wife. “You’ll be well-treated after that.”

  The specter of a brighter future calmed Gayl, and she complained no more that afternoon as the foursome journeyed away from the palace.

  “We’re going to meet you twin someplace, and she’ll be our guide? Where are we going to meet her?” Kendel asked.

  “She’ll meet us at the Kisatchie River,” Dwad had answered.

  And so, it was, after walking at length up and over hills and down along valleys, the group came to a place where Kendel heard flowing water and singing birds, as well as tree branches blowing in the breeze. All the sounds of nature were interrupted by a low, melodious woman’s voice that called out, “Brother Dwad, you only come to visit me when there’s some business at stake. When’s the last time you came to see me just because you loved me?” the entrancing voice asked.

  “Sometime shortly after we left the womb together, I suppose,” the dwarf grumbled.

  “My sweet twin brother,” the other voice sounded like it was coming closer.

  And that’s when Gayl had protested the impossibility of the two beings as twins.

  Kendel listened to the repartee and wondered what each of the nonhuman entities looked like. When he had vision again, he began to think to himself, then paused. He hoped he would always have greater sympathy for other people who had disabilities like blindness. He never would have understood how cut-off a disabled person could feel from the world around them, as those who had other abilities carried on without acknowledging or explaining the situation.

  “Enough talking, there’s more traveling to be done today while the sun still shines,” Dwad said abruptly.