The Kingdom of Liticea: The Sorcerer Prince

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Interogation

As the days went by, Tauron saw little to nothing of Horith Ryden. He spent most of his time in his study, speaking with no one except his sons and his wife, Lady Ellen. For the most part, James and Ellen ran the day-to-day work of Castle Rainguard, while Killian controlled all the marshal work. Raingaurd, in the day was not nearly as terrifying as it was when one was approaching it in the dead of night. By day, it looked not to different from Anton, or Blackfield, minus the obvious signs of recent siege. There were bandaged soldiers scattered everywhere, of both Tauron's host and Horith's garrison.

Early in the morning of the third day, the Prince kept his promise and moved four hundred men to an abandoned fortress about two miles down the road, with an escort of a thousand under the command of lord Clayton. That thousand then were sent south to garrison Ryd, a much larger castle that still had its owners inside. Later that day, the Prince received a letter from Lord Ryd thanking him for the reinforcements. Over the next week, he would move thousands of men to solidify and reinforce the areas around Raingaurd. By the time a week has passed, nearly ten thousand men were moved from Raingaurd to the surrounding country. Any one of these forts would be an ideal foothold for the Morcars, and Tauron wanted them taken before they could gain such an advantage.

By day he was commanding the army, by night he and Lord Killian along with Horith's personal interrogator continued their questioning of Wrorc. They had chatted three times since the first night. It rarely came to blood, unless the Prince was in an especially bad mood, and he grew angrier every time he heard the Morcar's repeated answer. He was not expecting anything fruitful when he and Lord Killian went to visit him for the fourth time.

It was after supper and after along day of planning for Morcar attack. Their scouts have reported no activity in the west, so it hs been uneventful as far as the last several days have been. Perhaps tonight they would finally get something useful from the prisoner.

"Prince Tauron," Wrorc greeted them as they walked in. He was in remarkably good spirits for a prisoner of war.

"General Wrorc," they took to calling him, though his proper title was Jarl, "Remember anything yet?"

"Not yet, and your pet pig's fist will not help you."

"I've got some other things that can help," Killian suggested to the Prince.

"No," the prince replied, "Killian could you leave us alone for a few minutes."

"Let me just crack him on the jaw once, my Prince," he eagerly asked.

"Leave us."

He cursed under his breath and pointed his finger towards Wrorc, "You and I will be talking later," he said before he stormed out.

Wrorc was in a cell in the dungeons. It was about ten feet by seven and had a table for him to sit in with two chairs. He was seated in the one facing the door. Once the Warpig was gone, Tauron took a seat across from him.

"You don't feel like beating me tonight?"

"Apparently I'm in a good mood today."

"So what? Are you going to use your magic?"

"Pardon?"

"Your magic. We know of you even in Morcar. You're the Sorcerer Prince."

"Yes, I am," Tauron did not think he was so famous as to reach even the ears of the Morcar king. When his abilities were discovered, word spread like a disease the future King of Liticea was one of those accursed sorcerers. The question of what would happen when he became King was still weighing on the minds of his family and likely every Litici.

"I had no idea I was so... infamous."

"Indeed. And may I say that I'm sorely disappointed."

"Disappointed," the Prince raised an eyebrow.

"I've heard tales of your eyes as red as hellfire, your hair shined like gold in the sun, that you could wipe out entire armies like the hand of God. Demons, monsters and familiars were at your command and you used them to rip your enemies to pieces," the Morcar describe and the Prince could not help but be flattered.

"Sorry to be such a disappointment. But I must confess, you've been one as well."

"Oh, really?"

"Every child is Liticea is taught to fear the dreaded Morcars," Tauron recalled all the stories that were told to him over the years. "Perversions of nature, with long teeth and claws, eat children for dinner and breed with wild animals."

"Breeding with wild animals. I myself have never done that, but my cousin Logrin; I don't know about him." he seemed to find the Prince's childhood fantasies fascinating rather than insulting.

"You strike me as a reasonable man, Wrorc Meagarc. If you don't know why your King has decided to attack my country, why do you think he did it?"

"For the glory of his family and the glory of all Morcarland," was his guess. That was not good enough for the Prince. He wanted to know why they would cut their way through the depths of Rainwood to conduct a campaign that seemed doomed to fail, especially with winter upon them. Something must be driving the King to do this. Perhaps centuries of Morcars dying at Spartican spears and swords made him want to try something new. The Primary invasion point for the Morcars into the Eastern Kingdoms was a large pass through Gariel's Wall called the Pass of Alexander. It was wide, but still easily defendable and has been fortified with walls and forts for hundreds of years. Again and again the Morcars have flung themselves again it and all times it has failed. So perhaps the latest king has realized the folly and decided to expand his empire through another pathway, one that led into the Westland. It must have taken them years to cut their way through the dense forests, but it has paid off. The Westland was bleeding and swarming with Morcars.

"How will he feel when he learns that he has lost thousands of men to me?"

Wrorc laughed, "Like I said, Prince Tauron, that force was but a drop. Legions of soldiers will soon be heading your way and the walls of Rainguard will be breached and taken. And so will the rest of your country."

"I highly doubt that," it was Tauron's turn to grin, as we speak my father is assembling all the armies of Liticea into one. In weeks, you will be facing hundreds of thousands of my countrymen. And even if you do defeat us, do you think the rest of the Eastern kingdoms will standby as Barbarians swarm to their borders."

Wrorc's eyes flashed in realization. It became to the Prince that he had not taken into account this aspect of the conquest. All together, the Eastern Kingdoms could put forth more than half a million men. After they had bloodied their way through Liticea, they would have lost a huge portion of their men and would essentially be at the mercy of the other kingdoms. He took a deep breath and his hands  went to his temples, as if trying to contain the thoughts that were swirling in his head. Tauron was enjoying this too much, and he decided to push it.

"You must have thought you were invincible, no?" he jeered, "That you were going to make yourself the next great conquerors of history. Is that what your king told you when he sent you off to die? You will be remembered as nothing but petty invaders, whose savage way of life was turned back by the defenders of the civilized world. And when they speak of the failed invasion of the Westland, it will begin with you, General Wrorc."

The Prince turned and left the dungeon, convinced he had shown the foolish savage the folly of this invasion. Tauron's steps had a great deal of bravado to him. The men passing him seemed so small as he stood so tall. He had made an enemy nearly break down and weep just with his words. If this was what it felt like to be a King, he relished it.