“Sir, you are awake!”
seeing the confusion on Yipion’s face, the Royal Physician was quick to calm
him down, “Don’t worry, sir, you are safe now.”
Yipion was in his
father’s bed. At the door stood two guards, and inside the room the Royal
Physician had been busy with the making of medicine while a housemaid went
about cleaning the room.
“What happened?” the
prince asked.
“Oh my dear boy, we
rescued you, yes. We climbed the Black Mountain to help you, and during the war
we eventually found you in that crevice, bloodied, almost dead.”
“I told my father I
didn’t want his help.”
“Well, you see sir,
that is the reason for you being in that bed, yes.” The Royal Physician looked
deeply into Yipion’s eyes. “Your father was heartbroken with your attitude and
decided to abandon you. King Yulid of Orago didn’t share his opinion, nor did
your father’s generals for that matter, yes. They put him away and King Yulid
took over the operation. Your father knew he wouldn’t be allowed to rule
anymore, so he chose to take his own life to preserve his honour.” Yipion was
shocked, more shocked than he thought he would be.
“What about my mother?
What happened to her?”
“Oh, dear boy. Your
mother died last year. An assassin targeting your father. Yes, you are king!”
“How long have I been
asleep?” the prince made king asked, frightened.
“Almost a week.”
Yipion got up and
pushed the old man aside. Putting on any clothes he could find, he rushed out
through the door, much to the perplexity of the guards.
“Leave him be,” said
the Royal Physician. “He needs to deal with all of this.”
And indeed Yipion
would deal with it, in the only manner he knew: battle.
Not a battle against
Yulid, no. He had to find out his real enemy.
“Did you kill Hamut?”
he burst through the door to the First General’s quarters.
“No, sir, we did not.
He and most of his followers escaped.”
“Where did they go?”
“I can’t tell, the
only thing we know is he went south, towards the Forest of Ant.”
Just as quick as he
had entered, Yipion was out of the room. He made the Royal Counsellor fetch his
armour, and especially the blue stone, and in that same day he was off Southwards.
“I will not be beaten
by this measly soldier,” thought Yipion. “I am more than that. I am superior.
He who knows nothing of the Arts defeated me. How could he?”
“Do not be so quick to
judge Hamut. There is more to him than meets the eye. He is a master of the
Arts. Just not your arts. It does not
mean he is weaker than you. Always be mindful of your enemy,” the voice sounded
in a very patronising tone. That madness it had before was not apparent now,
and Yipion could also not feel it in himself.
Days passed and Yipion
thought only of the devil who had made all of this. If he hadn’t betrayed the
Kingdoms, none of this would have happened. His mind had been long since set on
vengeance, and he felt so close to it, now that that dreaded army of Hamut’s
was slain.
Yipion had travelled southeast
towards the Eye to the Star, as they called it: a gap of a few kilometres
between where one of the Mountains ended and the other started. The White and
Black Mountains started near the ocean to the West, circling around the Great
Plain – where the kingdoms of Inur’l and Orago were located – and almost
joining to the East at the Eye to the Star. The gap had that name because
looking through it from the Plain you could see the greatest and brightest
stars over the horizon.
The south-most part of
the Black Mountain turned slowly into a dense forest, which then became a fully-fledged
forest a couple of kilometres past the foothills – the Forest of Ant.
Yipion intended to go
through it in search of tracks or other clues of the rogue Warlords. He hoped
to reach Hamut, wherever he was, in a few of days. His horse was stronger than
normal horses, and the prince’s magic aura made him faster and more enduring.
The prince and his
steed eventually went through the forest and came out the other side. He had
seen fresh horse tracks heading south, and he followed.
Evening came. Yipion
came by a village on a slight hill. Not a big one, in fact it seemed as if it
were abandoned, but some light could be seen from within. He decided to stop
for the night and try to investigate whether the Warlords had been seen.
The first few houses
were abandoned, falling apart even. When he reached the first house with light,
a man came to the door to see the visitor. His face showed surprise, but he
rushed inside immediately, and Yipion just kept on his way, looking for some
kind of inn or a place to stay.
The streets were
desert, and a deafening silence could be heard. In fact, it was so quiet Yipion
even started doubting his senses, and maybe that was in fact a desert village.
As he approached what seemed to be the central plaza of the village, the voice
spoke to him.
“We should go back,”
it said.
“Yes, I feel that way
too,” Yipion mumbled.
And as soon as he
turned his horse around, he saw a hooded man pointing a finger at him. In an
instant he was thrown off his horse, and from all the houses came people
running at him with weapons drawn. Startled, he got on his feet and tried to
run, killing a few in the process.
The only place he
could find to hide was an abandoned house. Inside he found a trapdoor which led
to a sort of tunnel. Having run for about five minutes, he noticed another
trapdoor above him. It led to another house, almost at the edge of the town.
But what he found upon lifting himself up was even stranger.
“Hello boy. It’s about
time you died.”
Hamut punched his jaw
so hard a gulp of blood came out of Yipion’s mouth. Before he could do
anything, Hamut grabbed hold of the blue stone from the prince’s pocket.
“This will come in
handy, hey oh brother!”
He then stomped on
Yipion’s chest and cracked his breastplate with repeated stomping and kicking.
From the ground, the badly-lit face of the Warlord appeared as a demon,
dreadful, evil. From behind him came two other soldiers who spoke to Hamut
softly.
Yipion could not
believe his luck. He had found what he sought, but had he been lured? All of it
was very strange. His only chance to live was to teleport, but where? He could
try to go back to the tunnel, but it could be flooded by enemies now. Or he
could try to reach the streets, where he could more comfortably evade enemies.
And so he did.
The air was sweet, and
the stars were gazing upon the village. To Yipion’s amazement, the street was
empty, and so he entered a house, hoping to recover energy and riposte. His
chest was throbbing with pain, and he suspected a broken rib. There was some
food and water in a cabinet, which he gladly ate. He took a sack and filled it
with bread, smoked meat and a water canteen. Decided upon vengeance, he left
and went straight toward the house where Hamut had found him. With a clenching
of his fists a large explosion blew the house apart and set it ablaze. From
within came Hamut leaping forward, the flames drawing a devilish silhouette.
The fight was more
furious than ever, and they ended up destroying half a dozen houses before
reinforcements came for Hamut and the prince had to flee. He had not been able
to recover the blue stone, but at least he could live to fight another day.
With his remaining energy he teleported and ran as fast as he could, not
knowing where he was headed.
When day came, Yipion
realised he had been traveling east. He had never stopped walking. The terrain
was mountainous, but without many hills, so the way had been somewhat easy. He
reached a high point and saw to the east a high stone wall sheltering a big city.
No roads lead there, and he saw nobody outside the wall. He knew that town, and
decided to make for it. Tired, he had to walk slowly and heavily, but the city
of Mascath would surely be revealed a safe haven.
