Stone Pass Keep - Working Title

Chapter 2 - The Planning

Chapter 2

 

The Planning

Larken woke to the sound of the door to his bedchamber closing, with a start he wondered what would be so important that it could not wait until morning.  He sat up expecting to see one of his pupils with a lantern in hand and an apologetic look for disrupting his sleep.  Instead he saw the imposing figure of Marth with glowing staff in hand.  A shiver ran down his back with the thought of where the light came from.  Unlike most people he was not suspicious of sorcerers, but still felt uncomfortable about the power that they had at their command. 

The room, which Larken had to himself, was fairly Spartan, the only furniture was the bed and a chair that sat by the open fireplace.  An open book sat on the floor by the chair and a brown and white moggie lazed by the smouldering remains of the fire.  Slung over the chair was a brown woollen robe, like the room it was also plain.  Getting up from the bed he put the robe on over his bedclothes and began to stoke up the remains of the fire. 

Although Marth had not said anything about why he was here, Larken knew.  He had known that this night would come and had awaited it with some dread.  There was a time when he had hoped that it would never come about, but then he also knew what the consequences were.  For years he and Marth had been putting plans into motion, plans that he wished were not necessary, but like always, Marth knew their duty and kept him in line.

"How long do we have?"  He asked.  His words broke the silence that had held for several minutes.  The fire was now burning well and he stretched out the palms of his hands to warm them.  The moggie had taken advantage of a stranger and was enjoying the attention Marth was paying it.

"Less than a month." The other answered.

"That does not give us much time, I was hoping that you would be able to give me at least three months warning."  Larken turned to face Marth as he said the last, a look of concern on his face.

"We have had years to prepare for this, if we are not ready now then we will never be.  Besides, I knew several days ago that the wards had broken but I had to be careful not to arouse Jalos' suspicions, the boy knows that something is wrong and now, in an act of carelessness on my behalf, he knows more than he should.   I was going to wait another day until I found out just how much the boy does know.   Be prepared for some hard questions once he finds out that you know all about this."

"I'll keep that in mind.  Does his knowing change our plans?"  Larken asked.

Marth paused while scratching the cat behind the ears, contemplating the question.  "No, I think not.  By the time he realises what's going on he'll be so entangled in it that It'll be too late for him to back out.  We'll proceed as we planed, in the morning the boy will arrive here for his lessons as usual, after the attack on the town you'll deliver him to Altair.  Once there fate will take it's course, of course it's going to need our guiding hands along the way, but once he's on the right path destiny will hold him so tight he won't have many options."