Legend of a Forgotten Hero by Finchley Harlan

Author:Finchley, Harlan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Culbin Press
Published: 2023-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Vortigern confirmed that Rory had been right after which the two men stood tensely in concern for what would happen next, but for the next hour the archers didn’t try to build on their success. A reward had been on offer to the first archer to reach the fortress and after the successful man had received his companions’ congratulations a delegation left the mainland and worked their way along the walkways.

Tegan was in this group and when they were closer to the end of the bridge Vortigern saw that Prince Truman was with him. Presumably he would be presenting the archer with his reward.

Vortigern had to move away, fearing he would react in an intrigued manner that Rory would notice. He need not have worried as Rory continued to monitor the events on the bridge, his eyes wide with excitement at what he thought was his first chance to see royalty.

“There’s no need to watch him so intently,” Vortigern said, figuring he ought to say something to explain why he wasn’t paying attention. “The prince is just like the rest of us.”

“I wouldn’t know,” Rory said. “Unlike you I don’t get to spend my time chatting with mages and suchlike.”

“I don’t make a habit of it either, but we can’t waste time watching a prince as we’ll soon have some big problems to deal with.”

“That’s why I’m watching what they’re doing. With luck they’ll spend most of the day congratulating each other and they won’t get around to building a walkway and coming over until late in the day. Then we can sneak away after dark.”

Vortigern sighed. “That won’t solve anything. Kevan will be waiting for us and he won’t be impressed when we tell him that we don’t have the treasure. So we need to find a way to convince him that the devastation in here was too great for us to find it.”

“He’ll have seen that Tegan’s archers reached the island faster than expected so now we have an excuse that he’ll have no choice but to accept. When those folks don’t immediately find anything he’ll know we told the truth.”

Unlike Rory, Vortigern wasn’t optimistic that Kevan would be understanding as he had feared that Tegan would soon come for him and he hadn’t intended to stay in the area for any longer than he needed to. So he would have already taken out his anger on them by the time it became obvious that locating the treasure would be a lengthy task.

On the other hand Vortigern didn’t reckon they had a choice other than to try to talk their way out of their predicament. He sat down with his back resting against the wall as he prepared for the long wait until nightfall.

Rory joined him for a while, but boredom soon made him return to watching what was happening on the bridge. Before long he started giving Vortigern updates and they all went to reduce their chances of being able to wait before they tried to sneak away.

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