Book 2 Season's Change Spring's Revenge

Part 45 Unfair Disadvantage

Anger woke him from the sleep that he didn't want to be in. It was forced upon him by something that an unknown enemy had given him, but he did not know that. He did not know a lot of things. He did not know who that enemy was. But Donocain, his second in command, and the healer, they both knew. He didn't know that either. There was so much that he did not know but what he did know was that he had been asleep too long, and something was very wrong.

Thalion sat up and looked around him. He was alone it was mid-day and the wagons of his caravan were in the same place they had been the night before. He felt a wave of anger so intense it boiled out of him in a loud roar of the word "WHAT?" He wanted to kill something, anything, but nothing alive was near him; not at that moment. He got to his feet and looked around him again. The wagons were packed, his wagon was loaded, the animals were in their yokes. The guards and drivers started moving into place. Donocain came to him. He just stared at him. Thalion was confused, but he wasn't so confused that he couldn't understand that something was very wrong. He looked again at the determination and fear mixed in his lieutenant's eyes. He was starting to sort out what happened before he blacked out. "The cargo is gone? Stolen?"

"Yes. We are ready to move out at your command."

"Where are we going?" That was not a question that Thalion typically asked.

"The trail that was found leads north and west, sir."

"So, you think we should go that way?" Anger started to wake him up and clear his mind.

"I think we need to restock, sir. Dunfast is north and west. You always find good trades from the south there. The cargo seems to bring good coin. We have coin to make up for. Dunfast seems the logical direction to head in to help recover what has been stolen." Thalion could not argue with his second in command's logic and so he didn't. But there was so much that he just didn't understand. He just gave the command and the caravan headed toward Dunfast.

Thalion was deep in thought as he rode in his wagon. He kept playing the last exchange he could remember with Donocain over and over in his mind. Something was off, very off and he could not put his finger on it. The healer came to him and offered him food, water, and a potion. All of it helped him to think clearly. He called for the tracker and had a long conversation with him. He talked to each guard individually as they rode and slowly put the story together. Then called for both Donocain and the healer. He glared at them as the men set the camp around them. "Who is he?" Donocain and the healer looked at each other as Thalion glared then growled at them. "I will kill you both on this spot if you lie to me again." His eyes were like daggers of ice as he stared at them in turn. "I will not ask you again. WHO! IS! HE! The one that came for her?"

"We do not know."

"But you know he came for her?"

"Yes." Donocain did not even flinch when Thalion's large fist met his cheek. The strike was not expected. His body moved and rolled with the punch enough to keep him seated and awake, but his face hurt, and the corner of his mouth bled. He spit blood in the fire and looked back at Thalion. "He came for the girl and he took her away in the city after you threw her to its people. He saved her. Yes," he spit his blood in the fire again, "there is a chance that they somehow incapacitated a whole camp full of guards, me, him and even you and made off with the cargo." He spat the word cargo then corrected himself, "prisoners. It is hard to say. Either way. We are on a course to find them."

"How do you know?" Thalion was suddenly impressed with the man. Very few men could take a blow from him like that and keep his seat and head about him. Donocain did both. There was a lot more to him than he previously thought.

"The guards saw them as they rode north, and the tracker has us on their trail. As I said before Dunfast seems to be the logical place to go from here. I don't know what they know of anything. I just know that he came for her and that they are together. If she was here. She could have killed us all and yet we are all still alive." He held Thalion's eyes with his eyes and refused to back down. It was true. The boy and the Dark Faye could have easily killed them all as they slept, just massacred them and left them as carrion. Yet they did not. Why? "I don't know." He answered the same question that was in Thalion's eyes.

"I will have this boy's head and that bitch's too. This has gone on long enough. And when that is said and done. I will deal with you. You have changed. Leave me. Both of you. I need to think."

Thalion brooded and thought. He had a good description of the two in question. It wouldn't be too hard to find them. From what the tracker said he saw, they wore forest Elvin armor and cloaks. How he got close enough to see that Thalion didn't know maybe they had let their guard down thinking that he was still incapacitated or maybe even dead. That would give him a great advantage when they got to the city. He would find them. And they would pay for what they had done. Thalion glowered at the fire, threw a few rocks at it violently and growled before he kicked dirt over the fire and went into his tent to try and rest.

The rest of his travel was simple. The time allowed him to brood and fantasize about their demise. He had a devious plan for them, and he was certain that he would break them both with it. All he needed to do was get them both alone. He thought maybe capturing one then using that one as bait to set a trap for the other would work out nicely. He couldn't wait to get his hands on her again. The caravan made it into Dunfast at the end of the fourth day of travel. He sent Donocain and the healer off with the caravan wagons to see to the things they typically did and went in search of the people he needed to put his plan into motion.

"I don't believe that they have come into the city. There are a lot of new faces every day but not a Dark traveling with a long-haired human male with a beard in Elvin armor and cloaks. You said they have only one horse and a strange animal with them. My men will find them. What would you have me do?"

"Capture the female."

"That will cost you extra my friend. Dark Elves are particularly dangerous."

"This one is different. You will not have any problems capturing her."

"Still extra."

"Of course. Once you have her and you know where they are staying. I want her. Alive and untouched. If she is injured..."

"She will not be harmed. We'll leave that distastefulness to you."