Space Knights: The Arrival by Gregory Samuelson (buy e reader .TXT) 📕

it had to come to a choice, he would abandon the plan and seek the universe for that general and get rid of him himself. He was one of the greatest swordsmen on Boulthora, the only one better than he was his father. Vengethor was incredibly well schooled, academically, and most especially militarily. He had proved to be an amazingly good commander of men. He could command his men to do the most extraordinary things.

The best swordsmen and soldiers under his father, Gralthor, who was king before him, had trained Axlor. When Vengethor was about seven years old Axlor began to train him to be a soldier and swordsman. Axlor brought in his old teachers and they trained his son. By the time Vengethor was twelve he could defeat some of his teachers a third of the time. By fourteen he could defeat almost all of them three-fourths of the time. A year later he could not be beaten, except by his father.

Axlor took a deep breath and said, “I will consider all of your comments and ideas. We’ll meet here tomorrow to discuss these issues to decide our next course of action and to plan a possible attack on the tournaments on Caldar and to capture Princess Corena. Remember that at the moment our main objective is still to find this general and eliminate him. Keep me informed as your various battalions and divisions engage the Althorians and search for him, or anyone that might fit the profile as described in the prophecy about him. He is and will be highly dangerous to us. Find him!”

Axlor then dismissed the meeting and his generals, admirals, and Vengethor. As the men rose from their seats and talked to each other as they moved toward the door, Axlor called Kass to him. Vengethor and Roamer stopped and looked back, curious, but Axlor motioned to them that he wanted to speak to Kass alone, so they moved out of the room. Now alone with his most trusted general and advisor Axlor looked anxious.

“Kass, is the treasure we have at our main outpost on Althora secure?” Axlor looked for reassurance.

“Yes your highness. I can positively say that the treasure is very secure. I have doubled the guard there to protect it. I must tell you, though, some of our knights guarding it have asked what it is exactly they are guarding,” said Kass.

“Tell them that it is a most precious treasure worth more than they could ever imagine. That treasure is so important Kass; it must be protected at all costs! Now I must have you help me. Vengethor must never know the truth of our Bible. If he knew that our Bible and translation is slanted to make us and the Sphinx look good is false, we’d have a major problem. He must never learn the truth!” Axlor was desperate to slam his point home.

“Yes sire, I will do my best to insure that he never learns the truth. I’ll also personally take charge of the protection of the treasure on Althora,” Kass promised.

“Good. Now leave me, I have some thinking to do,” Axlor said and sent Kass on his way. After Kass left the room, Axlor turned and saw a figure stride out of the dark corner of the room, Bazar.

The Sphinx strode swiftly up to the king, looked at him, and quickly addressed him, “A rather interesting meeting. I am rather disappointed that you haven’t discovered the identity of the Griffin General. I thought that I had made it quite clear that finding him was of the greatest importance! He must be found regardless of the cost!”

Axlor was slightly stung and kept his calm as he responded, “I assure you that my men are doing all they can to find this general. Now there is a matter I want to know about.” He straightened himself to his full height and did his best to look Bazar in the eye. “Do you know anything about the incident that my son mentioned about his mission on Arathon? Do you know anything about that Griffin that stole my son’s glory by slaying that bat ahead of him and stealing the treasure before he got to it?”

Bazar turned his head slightly before looking back at Axlor. It seemed to take him minutes to answer the questions. After a long pause that seemed to Axlor to be too long for the questions, Bazar replied, “Yes, I know about your son’s failure. As far as that Griffin goes, you don’t have to worry about him. Let’s just say that it’s not a concern at the moment. If the Griffins had that treasure, they would be gloating about it right now. For the moment that’s all I have to say.” He snorted and started to turn away.

Axlor reached out to stop him and find out more, but had his hand shoved away. Bazar looked at him rather contemptuously and said, “May I remind you of your place. You serve us! We allow you to rule this world and make your own plans, just so long as they don’t interfere with ours. Soon the Griffins will be toppled and we will rule, and there will be peace. Nobody will dare oppose us. You have your orders. Find that general and let us deal with that Griffin.” He turned to leave, and then as an afterthought turned back one more time and added, “If you’re lucky, you’ll find and eliminate this general and have your path clear to achieve your plan.” He then turned and left the room by a side door.

Chapter 20

Dance and Conversation

The Scorpio landed on Caldar amongst many other spaceships bringing tourists and the students for the end of year knight class tournaments. Trance and his family disembarked with his classmates and their families. Of course Corena went with the royal family and the troop of Golden Griffins that were their bodyguards. Trance looked around as he always did in new places. He noticed