Kingdom Fall: Chapter 1

 

Chapter 1

The men of the Midnight Squad stayed in their prison cell if that was what you could call it. It was clear that the dwarves were not accustomed to having prisoners as General Topher Lateaf thought it was the nicest prison he had ever seen. They remained in their original quarters from when they first arrived. There were no locks on the door or bars on the windows. The only things that assured them that they were in prison were the two guards at the front and only door. Topher had thought about overpowering the guards but then his plan ran into a problem. He was in the middle of a fortified city, in the middle of a country he never knew existed, with no idea where his weapons or horses were. Not to mention that the dwarves clearly were well trained and prepared for battle. No matter how many times he thought about it, any escape ended poorly for the squad. Topher was a patient man and was just waiting for an opportunity that would put the odds in his favor.

He still had a hard time believing that the betrayal by their guide. Topher was usually a very good judge of character, and he had come to trust the Woodsman. After he had risked his life to get his men into the cave at the pass, he started to think that this man who had once been the sworn enemy of Carriland cared about the men and women of the Midnight Squad. In truth, he had rarely met a man that had such honor. He was completely heart wrenched that he had been fooled. When the Woodsman had stood there and exposed Queen Sara Bellfourth to the Dwarven King, Topher's trust turned to rage. Had he not been so blind-sided by the move, he would have acted quicker and killed the man where he stood. Now that he had a few days to think about it, he still wanted to kill the man, but he also wanted to know why. Topher had taken the betrayal personally. The truth was, more than for handing over his queen to an enemy, more than for betraying the mission, he wanted to know how he could have been so wrong about the man.

For prisoners, they were treated well. They were given three meals a day and people had started to bring in furniture for them. It was clear that some of it had been quickly put together and by craftsmen that were not used to humans. Most of the chairs were of different heights, even though none of them would be for a dwarf as they were too tall. Topher assumed that the Dwarf King was planning on keeping them alive for a while or why would he have his people make furniture for them. What he could not understand why the Dwarf King would keep them all prisoners. He could see the Queen and himself as they would know the most about the defenses of Carriland. He was sure by now that the traitor Woodsman had informed the Dwarf King that he also had a general from the kingdom of Delland and a captain from Doorshire. Why keep the rest alive? Maybe to use them as leverage to get the rest to talk? Other, darker thoughts went through his mind, but the truth was he just did not know why.

All things considered, the members of the Midnight Squad were doing well, despite being shocked by the betrayal. The one person that was having the hardest time with it was Private Jenny Corval, the Wood-folk. She refused to believe that the Woodsman could have betrayed them. When confronted, she would shake her head and say that there must be some other explanation. Even Captain Walch of Doorshire wanted to believe that there was more to it than simple betrayal but could not think of what. This Woodsman had made quite a reputation for himself, and those that lived in the woods found it the hardest to believe the betrayal.

Right after the betrayal, General Allison of Delland was very smug. He seemed pleased that the Queen had placed her trust in a man that betrayed it. He seemed happy for the next day. The man's glee was so out of place that he bothered Topher. Finally, Topher pointed out to General Allison that he too was a prisoner and that as a General of Delland, he was likely to be tortured for his knowledge of the Delland defenses. The general took this news like it had never occurred to him. Their guide did know that he was a general in the Delland army. After that the general was very quiet and mostly kept to himself, clutching his bag. Topher wondered what was in the bag that the general felt the need to protect, but he was just happy the general was no longer walking around acting all happy about being in prison.

He kept trying to get information from the dwarves that would bring them food, but they did not speak Common Language, so he had no luck getting information from them. From what he could tell, they were friendly and did not show fear or even moved in a guarded way. He was finding the dwarves a very strange group of people.