The Sworn Knight by Robert Ryan (novels to read txt) 📕

to their youth. How many times had they sat and talked exactly like thisthrough the years? And the memory flashed to him of the semi-dark barrackswhere they had met the very first time one night before a mission. They hadboth sat just the same way then, and somehow they were still both alive, andstill friends, all these years later.

Menendil saw that Caludreth was looking at him, and therewas the faintest question in his eyes. He wanted to know if Norgril was trustedenough to hear the rest of the conversation he had interrupted.

With the slightest inclination of his head, Menendilsignaled that he was trusted and that Caludreth should continue. At this point,it was too late to doubt that trust. Norgril already knew enough to haveeveryone in the inn killed and the building burned to the ground, should hespeak his knowledge. But that, he would never do.

“We were just discussing,” Caludreth said, “how to takeadvantage of the present situation. It seems my rescue has raised the spiritsof the people.”

“Too right it has,” Norgril answered. “The city is afirewith the story, and the king is in a mad rage. I’ve never seen Faladir in thismood before. It’s ripe for trouble or rebellion. Or both.”

“Then I have just the thing,” Caludreth said.

Menendil wanted to hear this very much. He had tried to comeup with something, but had failed. But Caludreth had once been a KingshieldKnight. What training had he had, and what tuition under a lòhren? Surely, hewould suggest something good, if dangerous.

“This is what I propose,” Caludreth told them. “We need totake the mood of the people, and strengthen it. To do that, we need to prove tothem that there is a resistance, and that it’s strong. We need to prove to themthat my rescue was no accident, but the fruition of good planning.” He glancedat Menendil. “Which it was, indeed.”

He leaned forward in his chair. “We need to send a signal tothe people that the seventh knight is coming, and that what they have seen sofar is just the beginning.”

Caludreth paused and looked from one to the other, and thenwent on.

“There’s a bronze statue of the king in the city square,near the palace. You know the one I mean?”

Norgril said he knew, and Menendil nodded. He dared notspeak just now.

“In that same square, there are markets every day. Thousandsof people go there each morning. Few, if any places, in the city holds as manypeople in such a short time.”

Caludreth’s voice grew quiet as he spoke, and it was nowbarely above a whisper.

“That statue is the place to leave a message, and a messagethat will be seen by many. Those who see it will spread it around everywhere,and within hours no one in the city will have failed to hear it.”

“What will the message be?” Norgril asked.

“First,” Caludreth answered. “We will pull down the statue.That is symbolic, and the people will grasp its meaning swiftly. We need nohorses for that. Ten strong men and some ropes will do the job.”

Menendil immediately grasped the implications of that. Itwas really a direct threat to the king himself. It was a statement that notonly was he defied, but that he was going to be overthrown himself. The peoplewould see that just as quickly as he had, and the audacity of the whole thingwould give it tremendous momentum. But what made it so useful also made itdangerous. Toppling the king’s statue so close to the palace itself wasunthinkable.

Caludreth was not done though. “When the statue is toppled,what will be left is the stone plinth. Here we can chisel some words. Theseventh knight comes, is a phrase that might do nicely.”

Silence fell, and Menendil studied the once-knight almostreverently. Here was a man who knew how to get under the skin of the enemy androuse the people to open rebellion. But at what risk?

Caludreth looked at them both in turn. “Well, what do youthink? Would you dare to attempt such a thing?”

Norgril nodded slowly, and Menendil found his voice at last.

“Do we dare not to, if we wish to see freedom in Faladiragain?”

“That is exactly so,” Caludreth replied, “and I’ll come withyou. I have a very personal grudge against the king, and this strikes to theheart of that at the same time as hitting a blow for the people.”

17. A Night of Chaos

It was past the middle of the night, and the citysquare was devoid of people. Except for ten of the Hundred, Menendil, Caludrethand Norgril.

No one ventured abroad at night, and that was to the smallparty’s advantage. It made it easier to move unseen, and they had passedthrough the dark streets without suspicion or chance of being questioned as towhat they were about or why they carried ropes.

But there were disadvantages too. The reason the streetswere abandoned at night was because they belonged to creatures of evil. It wasnot just the waylayers and murderers, though they remained. Perhaps they weredriven by poverty and hunger, but Menendil did not think so. Something dark intheir nature drove them, and even fear for their own lives could not subdue it.

Besides the dark element of human society, there were alsothe soldiers. They marched the roads, both day and night, patrolling. Or sothey called it. They were dangerous during the day if someone looked at themthe wrong way or made a comment they did not like. At night, they were killers.And they were not suffering hunger or poverty. The king paid them well. No,they killed for the king to instill fear in the citizens. Perhaps they killedbecause they liked it too. Menendil had certainly met soldiers like that backin his day, but they were the extreme exception.

But the real danger at night were the creatures of theShadow that came out after the sun set. There were rumors of those that killedand feasted on human blood. Others bit with venom, and their victims died inagony screaming in some alley, but no one went out to help them. There were theNight Fliers too. These were the most dangerous, and Menendil had seen themhimself. He preferred