Lich-El: Lich Lord Wars book 1

Chapter 5

"Is your cousin comfortable in his accommodations?"

"Why is he here?"

"He quite bravely stepped in front of one of Tornal's attacks to save a friend. He needed immediate care, and no, letting him die wasn't an option. He's family and you can't punish him for events that happened before he was born."

"I'll accept your words and decisions, but I don't have to like it."

"You aren't required to. But keep in mind the boy's bloodline alone could make him a valuable ally against our enemies."

"I don't need help against my enemies."

"If you say so. What I need now is for you to take some knights and scout out the area west of here. Lord Aguerius won't be happy about us taking his son and I need eyes out there."

"As you wish."

Gidon, Jerad and Teaneas rode quickly all night stopping briefly at sunrise to eat and for Gidon to use his signal horn to signal his men in the area they were approaching.

Shortly before noon they were joined by one of his scouts. Enas had been on his way to Morenville when he heard Gidon's signal. He brought news that Noneh Village had been wiped out by the Undead.

Gidon then promptly recruited Enas to take them to Demon Mountain by the shortest possible route. After all no one knew the regions of the Aguerius Province better than the scouts assigned to the region.

As the sun began to set, Demon Mountain was in full view. Gidon ordered a stop for camp. They had been traveling a full night and a day without rest. As much as Gidon wanted to hurry, he knew he'd be no help to his son if they approached an Undead stronghold ready to drop from exhaustion.

Gidon pulled out a small, black box and opened it. Inside were two spindles: One pointed north and the other pointed towards Demon Mountain.

"What's that?"

Gidon turned to find Teaneas standing near him. Putting the box away, Gidon answered, "Four years ago after Almas got lost in the forest, we realized how close we came to losing him. So Izybel made a new crest for each of the kids and made compasses with a spindle magically linked to a crest. This one is linked to Almas' crest. It's pointing directly at Demon Mountain."

The two were silent for a couple of minutes, then Gidon began speaking again. "I was doing archery practice with Creetan when I was notified that some of my scouts had failed to report in. I could've gone home, retrieved this and followed it right to the kids. But I decided it would be faster to try to go find him right away. I thought I was just taking a precaution. I never thought the enemy could get so close so quickly."

"There is plenty of blame to pass around," Teaneas started. "My son's protection of the forest made it seem that nothing truly evil could penetrate the forest. I grew too complacent. For now what we need to do is to focus blame on those most responsible, those that invaded our children's sanctuary."

"Speaking of which," came a voice behind them. They both turned to see Jerad, who continued, "Do we have any kind of plan on how we are going to get Almas out of an Undead forward base?"

Teaneas and Gidon looked at each other a moment. Then Teaneas turned to Jerad and answered, "Gidon and I will go in and negotiate the boy's release."

Jerad's eyebrows shot up. "You're just going to go in and ask for him?"

"Yes, they will not attack Gidon as long as he's accompanied by a neutral party."

"What happens if they decide you're not neutral? Tornal didn't seem to think your kids were neutral," Jerad responded gruffly.