Episode 18: Rude Awakening

"Wake, wake -- you cannot play the part of the enchanted prince forever. Wake!"
Someone was slapping Gundar's face with a cold, wet cloth. He groaned and tried to turn his head away.

"Wake! Time is a-wasting!" The cloth slapped down again, even harder. Gundar opened his eyes. The persistent pest was none other than Scaramouche.

"Stop!" Gundar growled, attempting to grab his tormentor's wrist. Scaramouche danced back, crowing with delight.

"At last! I thought you would never rejoin us!"

Gundar groaned again as he struggled to sit up. His body was stiff from lying on the floor, and his head was throbbing.

"Where is that accursed Doremus?" Gundar asked. "We have a score to settle."

"Safely trussed up like a chicken ready for roasting," Scaramouche said, jerking his head sideways significantly. Gundar followed the direction of the gesture with his eyes, and saw that his erstwhile host lay glowering a few feet away, hands and feet tied behind his back.

"How--?" Gundar asked. Fool that I am -- taken in by a smiling face and honeyed words of welcome.

"I had a premonition," Scaramouche said. "There was something evil in the air. I elected to stay hidden and listen. When the two of you fell silent, I peeked out just in time to see Doremus with his dagger, preparing to slit your throat."

"And you found the means to overpower him?" Gundar asked incredulously. Ridiculous as it seemed, it was the only possible explanation for the fact that he was still alive.

"Indeed. I wriggled from the sack in a trice and upset the pitcher on the table. While Doremus' attention was divided by the noise, I shoved the footstool into the back of his knees. He fell hard and hit his head on the table." Scaramouche threw the wet towel aside. "He never saw me coming."

"And Eric?" Gundar asked.

"Gone to tend the horses and look about. He's much hardier than you -- came to himself hours ago."

Gundar struggled to his feet, discovered that he was too dizzy to stand, and sat heavily on the same chair he had occupied the night before. Scaramouche scurried to the fireplace and returned with a mug of hot herbal brew.

"Here. 'Tis bitter from sitting, but it served Master Eric well. Would you care for some breakfast? I gathered some eggs."

Gundar took the cup and concentrated on controlling his shaking hands.
"Breakfast can wait."

The taste of the beverage was sufficiently robust to make Gundar grimace, but, as Scaramouche predicted, it cleared his head in short order. Gundar was considering the wisdom of downing the final dregs when the door opened to admit Eric. He looked fit enough, but there was a shadow in his eyes.

"Greetings, Gundar!" Eric said. "It does my heart good to see you up and about."

"Greetings to you," Gundar said. "Are the horses well?"

"Fit and ready to be on their way," Eric said.

Gundar stood up. "Let us go then. I can eat breakfast as we travel."

"What of him?" Scaramouche asked, looking significantly at their prisoner.

"Leave him," Gundar said. "He will work his way free in due course."

"We cannot do that," Eric said. "We must take him to the magistrates." He swallowed hard. "There is a great pile of bones at the foot of the cliff nearby. No telling how many this beast has murdered."

"And what is the penalty in this land for such a deed?" Gundar asked.

"Death by hanging," Eric answered.

"Then let us save ourselves and the magistrates the trouble. We can throw him over the cliff and be rid of him."

Eric's eyes grew large. "We cannot take justice in our own hands!"

"And who will object?" Gundar asked. "No one need know." He strode over to the prisoner and tested the ropes that bound him. "These knots will not be easy to untie," he said, admiring Scaramouche's handiwork. "Is the cliff near? We can carry him."

"It is only a little way from here," Eric said. Doremus whimpered as Gundar picked him up roughly by one arm. "Take his feet," Gundar ordered Eric, feeling not the slightest pity. He was still stinging from his own stupidity.

"Have mercy!" Doremus whined. "I am old and helpless. I had no other way of making my living."

"Trouble yourself no longer, my brother," Scaramouche said sarcastically. "You will not waste away with age. Your worries are over and your fate is sealed."

"PLEASE!!" the old man shouted as Gundar and Eric wrestled his wriggling body through the door. "I have the means to grant you wealth and fame!"

Scaramouche looked up. "Ah! The vultures and the ravens are gathering. They always sense fresh meat on the way."

"I can give you the princess!" Doremus yelped.

"Who?" Gundar asked, without slackening his pace.

"The princess Laesta!"

"Indeed?" Gundar said. "A likely fable. No one knows where she is."

Doremus continued to plead for his life until they reached the edge of the cliff. Gundar looked over the edge and shuddered in spite of himself. The drop was almost vertical, with outcroppings of sharp rocks.

"Are you sure those are human bones?" Gundar asked.

"Oh yes," Eric said. "I took the path down to check. I counted almost a hundred skulls."

"All right," Gundar said. "We'll swing him back and forth on my count, and let go when I have reached five."

Eric hesitated. "I'm tired. Can't we rest first?"

"You can rest in the carriage," Gundar said. "The sooner we get out of here, the safer we will be. There may be brigands in the area."

"There are indeed," Doremus said, "led by the youngest son of Gallagher the Terrible. He was still home at his mother's skirts when his father was taken, and grew up with a heart thirsting for revenge."

"So he gathered forces to kidnap the king's daughter?" Eric asked.

"Yes," Doremus said. "A rag-tag crew of starvelings, but good fighters. He means to send Laesta's body parts to her father one by one."

"No ransom to pay his men?" Gundar asked.

"Oh yes, he will extract what he can, but he means to kill the princess in the end, when he has tormented her father as much as is possible."

Gundar let Doremus' body drop on the ground, his mind racing. Eric followed suit.
"If we take him to the magistrate, they can question him about the whereabouts of the princess," Eric said hopefully.

"It may be too late to save her by then," Gundar said. He drew his dagger and held it at Doremus' throat. "I will spare your life if you help us rescue the princess."

"She is in a cave nearby," Doremus said. "I will point it out. But first, you must untie me."

"That is not good enough," Gundar said. "You must be in the soup with us up to your neck every step of the way. If we are caught, we will be caught together, and you must face the retribution that befits a traitor."