Return of the Stormcriers

CHAPTER 18 - THE MOST WANTED MAN IN VERDEN

    "Who is Hal Heartwick?" Matt asked again as they followed the Dukes through the bustling halls of the manor. Soldiers and overworked staff stayed well out of the noblemen's path as they ran here and there carrying papers, weapons, and food. This was clearly an organization on the verge of declaring open warfare. The coming civil war was only weeks, perhaps even just days away from tearing apart the kingdom of Verden, raging on until one half had brutally conquered the other while the majority of the populace would be trapped between the warring factions. Will had brought up a vision of an even more terrible outcome when he had questioned the Dukes. If the resistance won the war but their leadership turned on one another, or if neither side capitulated, how long would the conflict rage with no clear winner? Could he afford to stay neutral in such a conflict? With the High King's men already pursuing him he could ill afford to give the resistance any reason to declare him an enemy. Accepting their offer to join could be his best chance of survival.

   "Hal Heartwick is quite possibly the most dangerous man in Verden, one of the most dangerous in the world," Duke Lucas answered simply, his eyes remaining forward as he kept his brisk stride.

   "What makes him so dangerous? Is he a Stormcrier?" Matt asked. He had to have some form of power if the Dukes considered him to be such a threat.

   "He is not a Stormcrier. Hal Heartwick has created a criminal network that spans the breadth of Verden and beyond. He deals in information, weapons, mercenaries, theft, and anything illicit you can think of, he has his fingers in it somehow. Two decades ago we caught him selling sensitive information to Svet," Lucas explained.

  While Matt did not know much about the world beyond the shores of Verden, every child in the kingdom learned about Svet at a young age. Svet was a moderately sized kingdom that covered most of the southern end of the continent of Makhara across the Kabehkan Sea to the north of Verden. Svet had launched a devastating invasion of Verden less than a decade after the original human stormcriers had successfully won their freedom from their dragon overlords. The fledgling kingdom had barely begun to rebuild before Svet's soldiers had landed on the rocky beaches of northern Verden. While Verden had successfully repelled the attack, the bad blood between the two nations still ran deep. Even now, almost a century later, there were little to no trade relations between the two kingdoms as the wounds from that three year long war still remained fresh in the minds of the populace of Verden.

   "How did a man such as Hal learn such sensitive information to give to Svet?" Matt asked, concerned that someone with that level of malice could procure such information from the nobility. Was that the sort of incompetence that Duke Percival had referenced earlier in his indictment of the High King? The dukes looked at one another, clearly made uncomfortable by the question, but tellingly, none of them offered an answer to the query. For a brief moment, Matt considered pressing the subject, but his better judgment took hold and he allowed the moment to pass.

They had reached the base of the wide staircase and were now making their way through the fairly crowded entry hall. The soldier led them to a nondescript side door that opened to a narrow flight of spiral stairs that lead below the ground floor of the manor. Small sconces were placed intermittently along the wall, but instead of torches that would have filled the cramped, windowless space with smoke, small glowing balls of the same magic light that filled the war room had been placed in the metal brackets. Matt's natural curiosity tempted him to poke one of the glowing orbs, as this was the closest he had managed to get to one, but he resisted.

  As he had noted when he had seen Will conjure his, the lights were perfect, unblemished spheres of pure light. They gave off no heat or sound, floating perfectly still where they had been placed. He had been so mentally preoccupied when he had first been led into the war room that only now did Matt realize the significance of these lights' presence in the manor. The resistance had to have at least one sorcerer among their ranks. Before he had met Will this knowledge would have ended any trust he could have grown to have in the rebellion, but now he was just eager to meet more magic users. One small glance at Will showed him that the young noble was equally intrigued by the sourceless lights; he would have to ask him more about magic whenever they had a moment to themselves away from the Duke's ears.