The Knight Marshal (The Silk & Steel Saga) Read online

Juliana smiled. “A skill from my childhood.” Her face sobered. “You saved my life…and the lives of my crew.”

  “If you hadn’t come north, you wouldn’t have been in danger.”

  “Perhaps not…or perhaps the danger would have found us anyway. Darkness looms close these days.” Her voice dropped to a pensive whisper. “My sister sent me north for a reason.” Her gaze narrowed. “What are you?”

  Kath shrugged. “Someone who does not give up.”

  “No, you’re more than that.” Conviction laced the captain’s voice. “You’re a force to be reckoned with.”

  Kath studied the captain’s face, the details so similar to her sword sister’s despite the bright red hair. “Can you get us to Navarre?”

  “The sea can be fickle. Storms, leviathans of the deep…and MerChanter raiders, there’s always a challenge, but the gods willing, we’ll make it home.”

  “I’ll hold you to that, and the gods as well.” Weary to the bone, Kath slumped to the deck. Befuddled by the sharp pain that had pierced her chest, she tugged aside her chainmail and gambeson, straining to see. Beneath her armor, she found no sign of a wound…but her skin tinged red in the shape of her gargoyle. Her gargoyle. An icy fear shivered through her. Something was wrong, very wrong. Making a quick check of the crystal dagger, she gripped Duncan’s warrior ring and stared west, her gaze seeking the red comet. It was still there, hanging a thumb’s width above the horizon, a mocking goad writ upon the sky, a reminder that time was running out. Somewhere in the south, the Mordant schemed, planting deceits and twisting souls, plotting the Battle Immortal…but the oldest harlequin was not the only threat. Kath rubbed her chest, grimacing at the strange warning, as if Hell had opened all its gates, disgorging countless nightmares. More than one kind of evil stalked Erdhe. While she sought to escape the north, Darkness was winning. Darkness was laughing.

  Epilogue

  Wagons trundled across the snow-patched greensward bearing their bitter burden. Horns blared from the outriders, giving the ‘all clear’ signal. A trumpeter stationed upon the gatehouse barbican answered, welcoming the wounded home with a single mournful note. The silvery sound shivered across Castlegard, piercing the early morning mist.

  Quintus rushed to the gatehouse, his dun-colored cloak pulled close against the gray drizzle. Out of breath, the pudgy healer scrambled atop a mounting block, the better to take the grim tally.

  The great drawbridge descended, thudding across the castle’s slate-gray moat. Soldiers moved to the second set of winches. Metal clanked as the great portcullis slowly rose. Sharp-toothed with fierce spikes, the metal grate clattered opened like a hungry mouth. Fully raised, the sharp incisors disappeared into the barbican’s mitered stone; proof the castle hid half its menace.

  The first wagon drew near the drawbridge. Steam rose from the drays’ broad backs, their muscled flanks streaked with sweat, their feathered hooves drumming a steady rhythm on the sturdy planking. The massive drays plodded across the drawbridge, gentle giants drawing their burden beneath the portcullis and through the tunneled passageway.

  From the vantage of the mounting block, Quintus peered into each wagon as it passed, making a quick assessment of the wounded. His heart sank. Too many were in dire need of his help.

  As the last wagon rolled past, he leaped from the mounting block to catch the wagon’s tailboard, struggling to pull himself over the rim. Hands hauled him into the wagon bed. The wounded made space for him. Some muttered greetings, looking at him with hope-filled eyes, while others had the glazed look of the nearly dead. He moved among them, tightening bandages and sniffing wounds for signs of rot.

  The wagons threaded their way through the castle’s labyrinth of defenses, plodding between the outer walls raised by the sweat of ordinary stonemasons and the soaring inner walls of mage-stone raised by the wizards of a distant age. Shadows fell across the wagons, everything dwarfed by the majesty of the inner walls.

  The wagoner clucked to his drays, urging them to a faster pace. Nearly home, the massive horses surged to an eager trot. They reached the second portcullis, the entrance to the inner castle, but the wagoner took too sharp a turn. The rear axle caught on the mage-stone gateway. Metal scraped against stone, both refusing to give. Heads bowed, the mighty drays surged forward like horses yoked to the plow. Wedged against mage-stone, the wagon tilted at a precarious angle. Quintus feared the wagon would tip…but then something gave way. Abruptly dropping to level, the wagon trundled through the gate.

  A cold dread shivered down the healer’s back. Needing to know, he leaped from the wagon and scurried back beneath the portcullis. Low on the mage-stone wall, he found something impossible. He gaped to see it. The wagon’s metal axle had clipped the mage-stone…and left a scar.

  APPENDIX

  CASTLEGARD

  Three hundred years after the War of Wizards decimated the kingdoms of Erdhe, a group of knights banded together to protect the southern kingdoms from the ravages of the north. They claimed Castlegard, the great mage-stone castle left empty after the War of Wizards, as the seat of their power. Adopting the shape of the great castle as their symbol, they became known as the Octagon Knights.

  To bolster their cause, the knights were ceded land running along the length of the Dragon Spine Mountains. Stretching from Castlegard all the way to the Western Ocean, this land became known as the Domain. A series of castles, keeps, and walls were built along the Dragon Spines, allowing the knights to control the mountain passes and deny access to the southern kingdoms. The Domain also includes the only iron ore mine in all of Erdhe to yield blue ore, the rare ore required to forge the knights’ fabled blue steel swords.

  As a sworn brotherhood of elite knights, the candidates forsake their lineage and their past when they win their maroon cloaks. Their symbol is a maroon octagon emblazoned on a silver shield.

  KING URSUS ANVRIL, King of Castlegard and the Knights of the Octagon, Lord of the Domain, bearer of a great blue sword named Honor’s Edge.

  -his wife, QUEEN PHYLA, died giving birth to their only daughter

  -their children:

  PRINCE ULRICH, First-born son of the king, a sworn knight of the maroon, former commander of the wall at Raven Pass, bearer of a great blue sword named Mordbane

  PRINCE GRIFFIN, Second-born son of the king, a sworn knight of the maroon, former commander of Dymtower

  PRINCE GODFREY, Third-born son of the king, a sworn knight of the maroon, former commander of Shieldhold

  PRINCE TRISTAN, Fourth-born son of the king, a sworn knight of the maroon, slain while leading a patrol into the steppes

  PRINCE LIONEL, Fifth-born son of the king, a sworn knight of the maroon, former commander of Cragnoth Keep

  PRINCESS KATHERINE, Sixth child of the king, also known as the Imp or Little Sister or Kath. As a female, the Octagon symbol of Castlegard is forbidden to her. Instead she uses the Anvril’s ancient heraldic symbol of a red hawk attacking with talons outstretched on a field of white. The wielder of the crystal dagger, Kath travels into the far north with a small band of companions, seeking to slay the Mordant. After being tested in a trial by combat, Kath is hailed as the Svala, the war leader of the Painted People.

  KATH’S COMPANIONS

  DUNCAN TRELOCH - a master archer

  SIR BLAINE - a knight of the Octagon who wields a blue steel great sword named Stonecutter by the Painted People

  SIR TYRONE- a veteran knight of the Octagon with skin the color of ebony, often referred to as the ‘black knight’, a hero slain at the battle of Cragnoth Keep

  ZITH - a master monk of the Kiralynn Order, father of Bryce

  DANYA - a young woman who sought sanctuary in the Kiralynn Monastery with her mountain wolf, BRYX, she is called a ‘Beastmaster’ by the monks and a ‘Beastspeaker’ by the Painted People. She is locked in a healing coma after expending her magic to help take the Dark Citadel.

  ARMY OF THE OCTAGON KNIGHTS

  SIR OSBOURNE, The Knight Marshal of the Oc
tagon, right hand of the King, a one-eyed man with a scar-crossed face, he wields a saber as his weapon of first choice, but then takes up Sir Tyrone’s great sword from the signal tower of Cragnoth Keep.

  SIR LOTHAR, knight-captain of the Salt Tower, wields a battleaxe, close friend to the knight marshal

  SIR ABRAX, knight of the maroon, champion of the sword, guard to King Ursus, he wields a blue steel sword named Protector

  SIR RANNOCK, knight of the maroon, champion of the morning star

  SIR BLAZE, knight of the maroon, champion of the mace

  SIR BORIS, knight-captain of Holdfast Keep

  SIR VARLIN, knight-captain of Dymntower

  SIR KRISMIR, knight-captain of Shieldhold

  SIR KILGAR, knight-captain of Cragnoth Keep

  SIR DALT, knight-captain of Ice Tower

  SIR GRAVIS, knight-captain of Sword Keep

  SIR ODIS, knight of the maroon, champion of the lance

  SIR ADLEMAR, knight of the maroon, champion of the claymore, wields a blue steel claymore named Stalwart

  SIR TRASK, knight of the maroon, champion of the battleaxe, assigned to Cragnoth Keep as a punishment posting, slain at the battle of Cragnoth Keep

  SIR TYRONE, knight of the maroon with skin the color of ebony, often referred to as the ‘black knight’, a companion to Princess Katherine, he was slain at the battle of Cragnoth Keep

  SIR RAYMOND, branded as an unmade-knight of the Octagon, exiled from the Domain of Castlegard on penalty of death, sworn to serve the Mordant

  SIR BROCK, wounded knight

  SIR KEIFER, wounded knight

  SIR ZAKERY, maroon knight

  SIR TRADON, maroon knight

  SIR MALVOY, a fresh-sworn knight of the maroon

  SIR DEVLAN, a fresh-sworn knight of the maroon, died of battle wounds

  SIR SPARLIN, maroon knight died of battle wounds

  SIR CORBIN, a slain knight of the maroon

  SIR TANCIL, a slain knight of the maroon

  SIR MARIN, a knight of the maroon

  SIR AMBROSE, a knight of the maroon

  SIR WINTON, a knight of the maroon

  SIR VARDINE, a knight of the maroon

  SIR MELLOT, a knight of the maroon

  SIR TOWLIN, a slain knight of the maroon

  HADRIAN, master archer of the maroon, slain at Raven Pass

  BENFORD, master archer of the maroon

  BALDWIN, senior squire of the maroon, squire to King Ursus

  MARTYN, squire to the knight marshal

  TARGIN, a scout of the maroon

  BARTLET, a scout of the maroon

  BRANNOCK, master scout of the maroon

  ORRIN SUREHAMMER, legendary Master Swordsmith of the maroon, first forger of blue steel blades, some believe he forged magical abilities into his blue steel blades making them destine for the hands of heroes

  OTTO, the current Master Swordsmith of Castlegard’s forge, responsible for the forging of all blue steel weapons

  QUINTUS, the master healer of Castlegard

  THE DARK CITADEL

  The Dark Citadel is a forbidding fortress-city in the far north. Perched atop three hundred foot cliffs that overlook the Western Ocean, it is built upon a huge monolithic boulder. The tiered city has nine layers spiraling upward around the central stone monolith. Each layer holds a distinct class of people, with the poorest at the bottom and the palace of the Mordant at the summit. The stone monolith contains steps leading to a cave, the ancient source of Dark power.

  The Mordant’s domain also includes the steppes, a vast sea of grass that serves as a desolate greensward for the Dark Citadel, a barren killing field that becomes the anvil of winter. The northern steppes are divided from the south by a dark wall studded with ten Gargoyle Gates.

  The domain also includes the Pit, a massive crater with near vertical glass-sheer walls. Slaves live within the Pit, toiling within the Mordant’s iron mines. Female slaves are forced to serve as whores for the Mordant’s army. Residual magic in the Pit results in the massive abnormalities of newborns. Two new sub-races have been born and bred in the Pit; the Taals, an ogre-like sub-race with massive strength and limited intellect, and the Duegar, also called the Hounds of the Mordant, dwarves with the ability to scent magic.

  The symbol of the Dark Citadel is a gold pentacle emblazoned on a field of black. The Darkflamme is the Mordant’s personal battle banner, twelve feet of black silk ending in two silken tails of bright red flecked with gold, creating the illusion of darkness on fire

  THE MORDANT- With over a thousand years of life, he is the oldest of the harlequins, the god-king of the north, the ruler of the Dark Citadel. He wields the Staff of Pain, an iron scepter with a red crystal focus inset at the top.

  -his officers and priests:

  HIGH PRIEST GAVIS- High Priest of the Pentacle, Keeper of the Trials of Return, the ruler of the Dark Citadel in the absence of the Mordant

  DERMIT, an orphan lad of the middle tiers, his brother is taken as an acolyte to the priests

  MARA- a serving girl assigned to the upper mines of the Pit, the niece of Honorable Elswin, later assigned as a seller of dung patties

  BRUCE TRAGGER, a prisoner of the iron mine in the Pit, turned traitor to the rebellion

  THE MORDANT’S COMPANIONS

  DOLF, a master assassin of the Ninth Rank, posing as a manservant to the Mordant

  BISHOP BORGAN, a bishop of the Pentacle serving as the seneschal to the Mordant

  HOLDOR, a master assassin of the Ninth Rank

  CAPTAIN GARVER, a guard captain from the Dark Citadel sent south to serve the Mordant

  MAJOR TARQ, commander of the Eighth Fist, a cadre of elite guards from the Dark Citadel, sent south to serve the Mordant

  CORLIN, a master assassin of the Ninth Rank

  CRIMSON, a concubine from the Dark Citadel

  AMBER, a concubine from the Dark Citadel

  SABLE, a concubine from the Dark Citadel

  ARMY OF THE PENTACLE

  GENERAL HAITH- High General of the Army of the Pentacle, witness to the beheading of the Mordant in his prior life

  GENERAL MARRIS- General of the Army of the Pentacle

  TRANTOR, a snargon of the duegars, serves General Haith as his personal snargon (magic-sniffing duegar)

  MAJOR RUGGAR, military aide to General Haith

  VOLTRAN, chief handler of the gorehounds

  CAPTAIN LYNDON, captain of the pentacle

  CAPTAIN CROWLEY, captain of the pentacle

  BRUTHUS, Master Torturer

  CENTURIAN KIRKBEE, a centurion of the pentacle

  CENTURIAN ERLINT, a centurion of the pentacle

  THE PAINTED PEOPLE

  An ancient people, forgotten by most of Erdhe, the Painted Warriors are the descendents of escaped slaves and runaway soldiers. Living in the shadow of the Dark Citadel, the Painted People have forged a fiercely independent warrior culture that spans a thousand years. Outnumbered and poorly equipped, they strike back at the Pentacle in lightning raids across the steppes, reaping steel and armor from their enemies. They make their home in a secret labyrinth of caves hidden in the Ghost Hills. Deeply spiritual, they invoke the power of nature by tattooing their faces with the images of beasts and birds, a spiritual melding of man and animal. Divided into dens depending on their tattoos, they are guided by the Ancestor, a shaman of mystical memories, and lead by a Council of Leaders made up of representatives from all the dens. A secret and forgotten people, few in the southern kingdoms have ever heard of them.

  THE ANCESTOR- Also known as the Keeper of Memories, the Old One. The Ancestor is always a woman, following a matriarchal line of mystical seers that stretches back for nearly a thousand years. As the spiritual leader of the painted people she is respected and revered but she does not rule as a queen. Instead she serves as a guide to the council of leaders.

  VALDUR- a Taishan of the mountain lions, lost on a vision-hunter on a quest in the southern steppes. Attacked and left for dead by
soldiers of the Pentacle, a patrol of Octagon knights found him and took him to Castlegard where he died in Kath’s arms.

  THE SVALA - After being tested in a trial by combat, Kath of Castlegard is hailed as the Svala, the long foretold war leader of the Painted People.

  ROYCE- warrior leader of the mountain lions, leader of the Council

  THERA- leader of the ravens, master healer

  BRANT- leader of the boars

  FANGGOLD- warrior leader of the wolves

  RINGOL, warrior leader of the foxes

  MERRICK, a raven-faced healer, second to Thera

  CORWIN, painted warrior, hunts with Blaine

  TOMKIN, painted warrior, hunts with Blaine

  THE MAROON BAND

  A brotherhood of painted warriors who claim the honor of protecting the Svala. Survivors of the original eighty warriors who witnessed Kath’s trial at the Gargoyle Gates and then formed the vanguard for the attack on the Dark Citadel, they call themselves the Maroon Band. Their symbol is a tattered strip of maroon cloak tied to their right bicep. Their strips of maroon come from the extra length of Kath’s maroon cloak, given to her by Blaine after the battle with the hellhounds. Led by Bear and Boar, they have become the personal guard to the Svala.

  BEAR- a bear-faced warrior assigned to guard Kath, he refuses to reveal his true name, adopts the name of Bear and becomes Kath’s personal guard and friend, wields a sword

  BOAR- a boar-faced warrior assigned to Kath, refuses to reveal his true name, adopts the name of Boar and becomes Kath’s personal guard and friend, wields a mace

  TORVEN- eagle-faced warrior patrol leader

  SIDHORN, eagle-faced warrior

  TINGOLD- a wolf-faced scout, hunts with Blaine