KINGDOM OF THE STONE -- a Wattpad featured novel

Chapter Forty Five

By the middle of the second fortnight of his imprisonment in Har-Tor, Kaelis had given up on any plan of escape.  After the first fortnight, they transferred him to special chambers the dwerka had carved deep in the mountain just to hold him and a score or more like him.  Though his was the only cell occupied at the moment, he assumed the construction meant the elders had decided to neither kill him nor let him go.

Pronos still occasionally took his turn bringing Kaelis' food, though Kaelis got the feeling he only did it so he could complain.  He resented everyone's lack of appreciation for his involvement in the first angoran attack and the fighting to retake the valley.  He'd also grown bitter over his brother Somek's good reputation as a top trainer while he had been forbidden to train others after only a couple of maimings and one death.  "They'll face a lot worse in a real fight, believe me.  Those boys who passed my training will have no trouble with your southern fighters," he smirked.

He only once asked Kaelis about their training, but always listened to his stories.  Kaelis tried to make him laugh with tales of the drinking, fighting, womanizing and other crazy things he and his men had done, assuring him the people of the south knew how to treat the men who protected them.

When Pronos opened his cell door late one evening near the end of the month, Kaelis didn't even bother to open his eyes.  Having reconciled himself to his continued imprisonment, he was in a foul mood.  Hearing the pack hit the floor, his heart leaped up and he jumped up from the too-short stone shelf that had served as his bed.  Pronos stood in the open doorway wearing a pack of his own and holding two spears.

"I take it you've decided on a change of scenery?" Kaelis joked as he slipped on the pack.

"We have to hurry.  Be quiet."

Kaelis held out a hand for one of the spears, but Pronos didn't hand it over. 

"Later, after we're outside."  He gestured to the main exit with one of the spears.  "You lead the way."

Kaelis shrugged and started walking.  He felt a slight prickle between the shoulder blades and wondered if they were caught, would Pronos just run him through and claim he'd tried to escape?

"Turn left and go up the stairs.  Quiet!"

True to his word, Pronos handed him the spear once they were off the mountain.  They walked all night and found a copse of trees in which to hide as dawn neared.  Pronos refused to travel during the day.  "The spears are moving south," he explained.  "I don't know to which korion, so I don't want us to be seen."

"Why did you decide not to join them?"

Pronos shrugged.  "Like you said, they can't win.  I'd rather be on the winning side.  Also, Amantis owes me."

They traveled with extra caution that evening as they came to a village hosting a number of Har-Tor's spears.  Each tight ring of houses comprising a korion was surrounded by a circle of tilled land that stretched up to two miles, requiring Pronos and Kaelis to go miles out of their way to avoid being seen.

Once they crossed the border from the greenlands of the north into the blighted fields of the south, they proceeded more quickly despite the glaring full moons.  Nearing one of the southern villages, Kaelis took over and insisted they go there and see if they could find any donkeys to take as he was tired of walking.

Glad at last to be safe in familiar territory, Kaelis strode boldly down the trail into the quiet village.  A whiff of something rotten lurked on the night breeze.  He stopped and scanned the too-quiet village, the hairs rising on the back of his neck.

"What's wrong?" Pronos muttered.

Then he saw the bodies littering the trail and strewn throughout the common area.  The whole village was dead.