Free The Palace (Bell Mountain Series #6) by Lee Duigon Page A

was alone in the forest with his hawk, his hound, and Baby, Ryons felt like King Ozias, his ancestor, whose life he was learning from the Scriptures.
     
    These were by far the happiest days of his life.
     

     
    While Ryons explored the woods, Obst and Helki tried to find the meaning of Jandra’s latest prophecy.
     
    “The Lord wants us to go to Silvertown—that’s clear,” Helki said. “Goryk Gillow holds it for the Thunder King, so I reckon that means a battle. I’d rather do without that! I’ve already seen enough of battles to last me all my days.”
     
    They sat together outdoors at a hand-hewn table, just outside the ruined castle at Carbonek. There wasn’t much the settlers could do with the ancient pile of stone and masonry, although parts of it were usable, but all around the castle, they’d done plenty—planted acres of crops, built cabins by the score, and wooden towers and stockades for defense. The Abnaks in the king’s army ranged throughout the forest, scouting for enemies and bringing home meat, while the king’s Wallekki horsemen and wild Attakotts spent most of their time on the plains, guarding the approaches to the forest. The black men from the Hosa country farmed with a will—it was the occupation they loved best—while the king’s Dahai, Fazzan, and Griffs hunted down and battled gangs of outlaws. And every five days, they assembled for Obst to lead them in prayer and teach them from the Scriptures.
     
    “Now that everything’s going so smoothly,” Helki said, “it seems a shame to march us out to fight a battle. I want to crawl off into a cave and go to sleep for a year!”
     
    “But we must go farther east than Silvertown,” said Obst. “It’s quite clear to me that the Lord wishes His word to be carried across the mountains and into the heart of Heathen country.”
     
    “And how far east would that be?” Helki wondered. “If we’re going to go at all, we’d better get a move on soon. I don’t like it.”
     
    Obst smiled at him. “I don’t think I’ll like it much, either, Helki—it’s no life for a hermit. I was happy in my hermit’s life, but I doubt I’ll ever be able to return to it. As to how far into the East we’ll have to go, the Lord Himself will show us that. But I think our journey won’t end until we stand before the gates of Kara Karram.”
     
    “King Thunder’s castle!” Helki whistled softly. Kara Karram, on the far shore of the Great Lakes, where the Thunder King had built his New Temple! “Does anybody even know how to get there?” he asked.
     
    “The Ghols will know,” said Obst. Their country lay much farther in the East, beyond Kara Karram.
     
    “And what do we do along the way? Fight battles or preach sermons?”
     
    “Both, I would imagine.”
     
    “And at the end of it all,” said Helki, “we’ll see something with our own eyes that we’re never going to forget—that is, if we live to tell of it.”
     
    “Some of us will surely live,” said Obst. And Helki thought, “Which ones?” But he didn’t say it.
     

     
    Martis was right: Kadmel and his men didn’t catch the snatchers.
     
    “This is the way to Silvertown. That must be where they’ve taken the boy,” Kadmel said, when they came upon the rutted cart-road that Ysbott had followed up to Silvertown. “There’s a Heathen army there, and they’ll have scouts. We’ve gone as far as we can go.”
     
    “You’re going to leave Jack there? You’re going to just leave him?” Ellayne cried. “You can’t! You can’t!”
     
    “This is a patrol, miss, not an army. We’re too few to fight and too many to get past the scouts. We’d only get caught.”
     
    That was true. Ellayne knew it, but wouldn’t accept it. At that moment she would have marched straight up to death, if it would get Jack out of Silvertown. But when she opened her mouth to say more, no words would come out of it. She felt as if she’d just fallen out of a tree and had all the