The Legendary Inge by Kate Stradling

Author:Kate Stradling [Stradling, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: k'12
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2015-06-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14: Promotion

“Do you see this?”

Dagmar pointed to a piece of the armor that sat upon the table in the king’s council chambers. King Halvard and Colonel Raske both frowned as they inspected it.

“Where?” Halvard asked. “What am I looking at?”

“Here, on the edge where the pauldron would have overlapped the breastplate—do you see this residue?”

Halvard leaned in for a closer look. Raske had noticed the thin streak of brownish film and assumed it was blood. The armor was filthy, bearing ample evidence that the night-walker had savaged and picked its prey from within this metal shell. Why Dagmar might hone in on one particular bit of gore eluded him.

“What is it?” the king inquired.

“It’s not blood, and it’s not earth,” Dagmar replied.

Raske looked up in surprise. Her expression remained shuttered.

“I didn’t ask what it wasn’t,” said King Halvard.

“I don’t know what it is, your Majesty.” Dagmar dipped one finger in the substance, which was tacky to her touch. Raske’s stomach turned when she first sniffed it and then gingerly tasted it. “Messy business,” she uttered as she wiped her hand clean on a spare cloth. “It has honey it in, among other things.”

The two men stared.

“Honey?” King Halvard repeated, incredulous.

“Honey,” she confirmed. “A couple of other aromatic ingredients, too. Can’t you smell it?”

The only thing Raske could smell was the lingering taint of death. King Halvard was no different.

“And the significance of this is…?” the monarch prompted.

“It’s on a part of the armor that should have been covered,” said Dagmar. “Was Captain Bergstrom wearing his full armor?”

“Yes, everything,” said Raske. “I was coming back from lessons when the attack first began. I saw him leave his office and followed him down the stairs. The monster snatched him away before my very eyes.”

“As though drawn to him?” Dagmar inquired perceptively.

Raske could not reply. Everything had happened so fast. The monster had swooped in from nowhere, had honed in upon Captain Bergstrom. The first night-walker had attacked indiscriminately, though, so Raske simply assumed that this one had done the same.

“What are you implying?” King Halvard asked.

“This substance on his armor,” said Dagmar, and her hand hovered over that brown smear. “I think… I think it attracted the monster. I think that perhaps it was even meant to attract the monster—not to the castle itself, but once within the castle, you see. If someone knew, for example, that a night-walker would attack, and that someone wanted the night-walker to focus on one victim in particular…”

Her words hung heavy in the air.

“You’re saying—” Colonel Raske began, but he couldn’t bring himself to speak his thoughts aloud.

“Speculation,” said King Halvard abruptly. “You don’t know how that residue came to be upon the armor in the first place. Maybe the soldier who transported it here ate a sticky lunch.”

Dagmar allowed this possibility. “Maybe he did. Or maybe someone had something to gain by eliminating Captain Bergstrom.”

“Maybe Captain Bergstrom himself smeared it on,” King Halvard replied, one corner of his mouth quirked upward in sarcasm. He pinned Raske with an accusing stare.

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