Penumbra - Book 1 (6)

Keleth did not like what he had to do, and knew himself some of what Borin had to go through. But it was the custom of his people, and he knew that it was essential to maintain order in the ranks, especially on the Frontier. He put his doubts behind him without a thought and spoke the words he knew he must.

"Borin, Gail's son. You have confessed to abandoning your fellow men in the field of battle, and bringing shame onto the name of the King. For this there is only one punishment."

Borin's cries turned into wracking sobs, as he too had seen this very show played out before, and even then, when it had been happening to another, it had terrified him. Now it was happening to him.

"Please, don't..." he said through his tears, making a half-hearted attempt to run, but a contemptuous soldier hurled him back to the ground with the push of a hand on his chest.

"It gives me no pleasure, Borin." Keleth said, going off the ritual script against his better judgment. "But I will not feel your guilt for you: you have bought this on yourself." He made a silent gesture to one of his men, who lifted a heavy warhammer, and sighed. "By the authority given to me by the King of Light, you are banished from the kingdom, never to return. May the night serve you better than you have served your King." He closed his eyes, which his man correctly assumed to be the signal to proceed. He bought the hammer down on Borin's ankle with a mighty blow, and Borin howled in agony, his ankle audibly shattering in the strike.

Borin continued to scream in mindless pain until one of Keleth's men knocked him unconscious with the butt of his sword. Keleth turned away emotionlessly and started pacing rapidly towards the rolling watchtower, and his men turned to follow him. Rogan stared at the unconscious man a moment longer, watched him lying helplessly on the ground, waiting for the darkness to swallow him, and then followed also.

"Erris, stable the horses and get them reshod. Munq, resupply. Now," Keleth said, turning again to face Rogan with a snarl, "where in hell is my daughter?"

Alys had watched this gruesome spectacle from the turret, and knew she must face her father. Perhaps she should have faced him before she left, although she did not see why she should have had to, and that was her whole point. Never did she think he would be mad enough to pursue her for two moons, around a fifth of the Great Circle itself! Rogan had panicked, begged her to hide, or even run, but she had calmed him down and told him to ride out to greet Keleth, and tell him that she was inside. She had not expected to see Borin being dragged behind on of her father's men, and less still to see him banished before her very eyes, before her father had ever entered the tower. Still, that was a precis of her father: first things first. Still, if anything could have made her feel more apprehensive than she already was, it was seeing her father virtually kill a man immediately before having to meet with him. Still, she had braved many miles, faced bandits and deserters and the Enemy itself to be here. She could not shirk away from her responsibilities now. She reluctantly opened the trap door and descended into the tower proper.

She was sitting patiently at one of the tables in the mess when her father stormed up the ladder. On seeing her, the first thing he did was storm up to her with an expression of rage on his face. For one horrid moment she was certain he would strike her, but he did not- he wrapped his arms around her and sobbed quietly into her shoulder. It was barely an instant, but it was wonderful while it lasted. Almost as soon as it came it had passed, and he held her back from with two mighty arms and began to shout:

"Of all the foolish, dangerous, empty-headed things you could have done, you had to come here! I have pursued you across half the realm! Abandoned my duties, taken my men from their homes, left the King without my counsel at this crucial time! What fool errand is this, that you should bring this on our family?"

Alys struggled to hold back tears for a moment, succeeded, then looked up and held her father's gaze, forcing herself to keep her voice steady.

"Forgive me father, I have asked you to do none of those things."

Keleth's face bulged red, bright veins filled fit to burst, and again Alys was sure he might strike her, and even flinched involuntarily at the thought. Having also come up into the mess, both Rogan and two of Keleth's own men tensed up, as if thinking that they might have to tear him off of her.

"You are coming home with me, child. You are coming home with me now, and you are coming home without another word. Am I understood?"

"Forgive me father, but I am not coming home. I've passed my birthstone eighteen times. I am of age. I am free to travel about the realm as I please. You have no longer have authority over me in this regard. I'm sorry you followed me, but that is not my concern. I have chosen to come here. I will remain."

"You foolish brat!" her father raged, "you surely realize I could order you bound and dragged to the Cardinal City if I so wished it!"

Alys was scared, but knew she must press on. "But will you order it, father? Would you order the arrest of your own daughter simply to protect me? Would that not bring shame to our name? Would you drag hands from the Frontier at a time when it is in desperate need of them, just because you considered those hands to belong to you? Does that not bring shame to your title? You must choose my love or my loyalty, father- in this case you cannot have both."

Her father looked at her for a long time, then turned to look at Rogan, and then slumped down onto a nearby wooden stool, exhausted.

"Can someone get me some food? I'm famished." One of his men scurried about the kitchen, dishing up a stew that was simmering on a hob and bringing it to his master, who ate the entire bowl while his children looked on wordlessly. When he was done eating he sat quietly for a short while, listening to the creak and turn of the wheels outside, the low rumble of the oxen, pulling them ever onwards.

"I've been there, you know." he said quietly, almost too quiet to hear, and everyone in the room leaned forward unconsciously to hear him speak. "To the other side of the umbra, the night side." Rogan and Alys glanced at each other- they had not known this. "I never spoke of it when you were children. Did not like to think of it myself, so overwhelming is the memory. It was many crossings ago, before the Frontier was established, long before your birth. I was a young man, a soldier, about your age I should think. I was part of a detail escorting a group of foragers in the penumbra. We had followed a herd of deer into a forest and the group became scattered. Many men did not return from their hunt and we were ordered to fan out and hunt for the remaining foragers. It was foolish really, I became lost myself, unable to see the sky through the thick canopy of leaves and when I realized that I did not know where I was, I panicked and ran. I twisted my ankle on a stump of tree, called out for my companions, called for Helios knows how long. Stumbled about in pain, walked in my crippled state for what must have been many turns indeed. Never did find my men, and the forest grew darker and darker, and the air grew colder and colder, until my teeth rattled in my skull, and my skin prickled like millions of tiny knives were stabbing at me. When I finally reached the edge of that vast, vast forest, I knew that I had gone beyond the umbra, and that the sun was lost to me."

Alys' eyes were wide. She was absolutely fascinated. She'd often imagined what the world beyond the veil resembled, but had never really considered it an actual, real place that one could set foot in.

"What was it like?" she breathed. She was not sure if Keleth heard her.

"It was a nightmare. Dark to a point I was practically blind, devil noises from all directions at once, and the cold. I cannot even begin to describe how cold it was- like breathing in pain itself. How anything could live there, I do not know."

There was a rumble of disbelief from some of the Frontiersmen listening. "It cannot be true. How did you come back? No-one has come back from beyond."

Keleth's reverie seemed to break and he looked up at the man who spoke. "Luck, I suppose. I came upon an encampment of the Enemy. I had never seen them before myself, but as I am sure each of you know they are truly terrible to look upon. I killed them in their sleep and stole their steed, a strange beast I was barely able to master. I could see a dim glow on the horizon that I took to be our world, and I drove towards it with as much strength as I could muster. After much strange, fearful time had passed, I passed into the light and came back. Word of my story reached the newly-crowned King, and he recruited me to his personal retinue. That is how a lowly soldier became friend andadviser to the King."

The men still seemed suspicious. "How come we've never heard this before, that someone has come back? You would be hailed as a hero of the realm!"

"The King thought it wisest to keep the story quiet, and I was only too glad not to think on it again! This was before the war between us and the Enemy had truly begun in earnest, only a few years after the legends of the demons from beyond the light had even been confirmed as truth." He fixed his gaze on Alys: "But when I say to you daughter, that the thought of you venturing to the edge of that terrible abyss fills my heart with fear, that losing you over it would turn my world to ash, understand that I know of which I speak, and ask me not to choose between your safety and your love!"

Alys regarded her pleading father, and although it broke her heart to do so, she did not waver: "Father, I do love you and you know that I always will. But your story does not strike fear into my heart, but curiosity! There is a world beyond the veil! The Enemy sleeps, as you or I do! How remarkable these facts seem to me. Do you not want to know why it is they hate us so? Do you not want to understand them? This is why I am here, at this place. To see Rogan, yes, but I am not some child who cannot live without seeing her brother. I want to know more. I am here to observe, to study. Of course I want to serve the Kingdom and protect the realm, and I feel I can do that also, but I cannot return to Cardinal until I have the knowledge I seek."

Keleth was looking at her in astonishment. "And what is the knowledge you seek, my daughter?"

Alys answered without even thinking: "Who are the Enemy?"

Her father looked sad. "Rogan," he said: "Have you given Alys your leave to serve under you at this tower?"

Rogan coughed and shuffled his feet. "I have, father."

"I've raised fools for children. But at least you both have your mother's spirit, and I cannot hold that against you. Come here, the both of you." Rogan and Alys both started toward their father for a long-delayed reunion. Before they reached him, however, a high-pitched bell in the turret above them started to ring urgently, and a commotion could be heard both above and below. The men sitting about the messscrabbled to their feet and ran to the ladders, some climbing up and some down, other running to windows and preparing bows. Rogan was amongst them, shouting orders and gesticulating wildly.

Alys turned to her father, who had sprang up with the look of one who recognized well the sound.

"What is it?"

Keleth turned to her and spoke: "It is the sentry bell. Rung continuously, it signals the highest order of emergency the Frontier can know."

"You mean..."

"Yes. The Enemy is here."