“You seem to have a habit of being knocked down in battles.”

I smiled weakly, opened my eyed to see Deemeon standing next to my bed.. he continued, “But thankfully, each time you survive.. amazing.. isn’t it?” He added with a wide smile.

I tried to move, but my shoulder immediately reminded me of my close encounter with the Vino soldiers on the side of the road. I tried to speak, but I could only utter the name “Dusky”

               “Don’t worry.. Vycee champ.. we shall catch him.. thanks to you.” He seemed to be ecstatic. “And thanks to Trapp and Devo.. it is now a coordinated effort which shall soon pay off big.. just relax.. it’s just a matter of time”

I was shocked. They are taking credit for this as if it were an intended result of their stupid efforts. But I was not in any shape to argue.. I could barely breathe.

I was told that some soldiers who were spending their relaxation time at the red spot, recognized me and being aware that I was required to report to the BKC, they were able to transfer me to the palace and report the information I was repeating during my delirium, which provided the basis for the renewed effort to look for the runaway Vino soldiers. Their plan was to form a gauntlet for this task.. where Devo and his group would scour the brush in one direction and Trapp would lead another group doing the same from the opposite direction..  

I had to remain in BKC for a couple of days.. and on the morning of the third day Metz arrived to check on me.. I asked him about the situation back at OC and his report was reassuring that everything was running well. Deemeon finally announced promoting me to become the commander and brought in another soldier by the name of Heela, recommended by Trapp asking me to make her an assistant. Naturally that was not acceptable to me, regardless who that person might be.. so I just assigned her an assistant to Metz, until I would be well enough to get rid of her.

 I did not want to linger long in BKC.. so by the end of the third day, I insisted on leaving as I could walk on my own, albeit with a bandaged shoulder and a sling on my right arm. I could ride.. to move round and about and thanks to the gateway, I could get to OC Front effortlessly.

As soon as I arrived at HQ, I noticed the changes in attitudes and behavior.. Metz came in with Shana and some others and introduced Heela to me,

               “Heela reported for duty two days ago.. she was recommended__”

               “I know.. Welcome Heela, you had enough time to familiarize yourself with the place and rules.. so now you shall be stationed at the north camp and you shall report to Metz. I do not like complaints and I do not like whining.. so please keep that in mind.” I spoke in a cold final tone.

               “But Hort, I was told I shall be your deputy.” She objected.

               “You were told wrong. You shall do what I say.. and if you don’t like it, you can go back to Malaab or go dig a hole and sleep in it and never let me see your face again.”

               “Hort__” She tried to speak again raising her voice, but I got really angry and thundered,

               “Commander Hort..”

She was frightened.. and everyone in the room was shaken..    

               “Commander Hort.. Commander Trapp said__” she spoke in a shaky voice now.

               “Trapp is commander of the burnt down Castle of MEMOC.. he has no say here..  you are now standing in OC Front.. I am the commander of this place.. you already seem to have your days numbered here.”

               “OK commander.. I shall__” she stopped.. obviously realizing she would not want to further infuriate me.

               “All right.. everybody out, and back to your duties.. except Metz.. please stay I want to talk to you.” I waved them away.

When they left, I asked Metz to have a seat,

               “Listen.. this Heela is planted here to spy on us.. that is the way Trapp operates.. so you must keep an eye on her, and be very strict.. send her on assignments.. see how she fares.. and evaluate her work .. fairly, I don’t mean to be unfair to anyone.. but we have to be careful.”

Metz smiled in his usual easy going manner, and said,

               “Now that you mentioned this.. I did notice, ever since she arrived, she didn’t stop asking strange questions.. mainly about you.. where you go, what you do.. who are the people closest to you.. and many other very personal questions..” He was surprised that I realized this so fast.

               “Metz.. we should not let her know that we are onto her.. we should play it dumb as if she fooled us already.. when we can, give her the information we want her to know.. not the information she seeks.. let us be clever about this.”

               “Very well.. I am glad you explained this to me right now.”

I knew I could trust him.. after all, he never dreamed of reaching this rank without me, and he realized that as long as I am satisfied and in charge, he is well taken care of.

The following day in the afternoon, while I was inspecting the prison repairs, I was surprised to see Trapp come to see me. I tried to get rid of him but he insisted to talk to me.. I figured it was about Heela.. yet, I wouldn’t have guessed she had gone to complain to him. After all he was still busy trying to capture the elusive runaways,

               “All right.. you are busy, I am busy.. so speak up and get it over with.” I said flatly.

               “I think it would be better to speak without audience.” He waved for Shana, Metz and the others to leave.

               “I don’t see why.. hey, everyone .. stay where you are.. whatever you want to say.. say it.. I do not keep secrets from my team.”

               “This is commanders talking to each other..you should consider__”

               “Nonsense.. speak up or leave.. commander.” I said sharply.

He hesitated.. and then he leveled a fiery look at me saying,

               “Your promotion, Mr. Commander, was conditional on appointing Heela as your assistant.. Now___”

I didn’t let him finish,

               “You must be crazy.. a crazy idiot.. I didn’t ask for this promotion.. I can give it up in a blink of an eye.. I don’t care.. conditional? You can go where the sun don’t shine for all I know. Nobody gave me any conditions to keep.” He tried to speak and I shut him up, “Now that you said that, you can take her back to where she came from because if she doesn’t obey Metz’s orders as his assistant, she will find herself in one of those cells in this building.. right here.”

               “You are taking this too far.. that is why I wanted___” He tried again

               “How in the bottom of all darkness, did you know about what happened here anyway? You are supposed to be busy looking for the runaways.. right? Did she jump through the gateway to tell you? Is this why you planted her here? To spy on what happens in OC?”

               “No.. No .. No.. I just___”

               “Yes.. Yes.. yes.. that is exactly what happened.. she left her post.. disobeyed orders and went to talk to an outside officer. As of now.. her gateway privilege is revoked.. and you are welcome to take her back with you if you want.”

               “Be reasonable.. Hort.. this is too extreme.” He complained.

               “This discussion is over .. we are all busy and have no more time for this nonsense.”

I walked away and left him furiously talking to himself. As I walked out with Shana and Metz, the deputy murmured close to my ear,

               “Now I see why Deemeon likes you.. I wish I could talk like that. But, Commander, how.. how did you know__”

               “The Miniscule brain of commander Trapp is like an open book, you can turn the pages and read at will.” I smiled at him and kept going thinking to myself, “Thank you Bryane”

The council meeting was supposed to be the following night.. I wondered how that should be like.. and above all how I was going to make my entry into the CCP.. I spent the night in the commander’s chambers at OC. Which was also inside one of the green hills.. this place was previously occupied by Trapp, and then by Blake.. but the one who left a real legacy here, was Bryane.. a lot of books and charts.. I wondered why he didn’t take it all with him when he went to DC. It was all dusty and untouched for a while.. naturally the commanders who followed him were not interested in any of it and spent most of their time outside the OC anyway.. I found some valuable information about Bryane’s plans.. probably the one thing he never anticipated was having me fall upon these records.. with layout of different castles, and gateways.. it was indeed a treasure trove for anyone who cares to look closely into it..

A little chart stuck inside one of the books contained a list of names.. with some notes

“The calc estimates these persons are of special interest and will have a tremendous influence  on the outcome of the future battles.. my own estimate agrees and the Hybrid concurs., these individuals must be acquired and made to work for us..”

The list included the names “Dusky Powel, Harts Bloom and several others” Naturally I recognized Dusky’s name.. but I didn’t know any of the others. Something bothered me about this list. Somehow, I had a nagging feeling that I should relate this to Freddy or Warren whom I met before in different settings..

No matter how I tried, I couldn’t get this list out of my mind.. I put all lights out and tried to sleep without success.. so I left the underground chambers and wrapped myself in a warm coat and sat on the grass outside close to the little bush which marks the entrance..

               “Exhausting your brain to solve the riddle?” a voice whispered.

I looked around and saw the silhouette which I immediately recognized..

               “Who are you? Why do you disappear as soon as other people come close? Do you want them to think I am crazy”

               “You are crazy” He chuckled, “And I already told you.. I am on the inside.”

               “Stop talking in riddles.. how do you know what I am thinking? You learned from Bryane as well?”

               “Certainly.. and the solution to the puzzle is easy.. all you have to remember is the first time you saw me.”

               “On the road back from DC?”

               “No.. way back .. the first time.. during the storm.”

               “Storm? What storm? I didn’t see you when .. no .. you were not watching me..”

               “No.. not that storm.. not at the red cottage.. way before that.. when you grabbed your sword as soon as you saw me..”

               “I cannot remember this.. tell me.”

               “You grabbed your sword because it was the first time we talked.. do you remember your sword?”

               “It must have been a regular sword.. I never had any fancy one with gold or inscriptions or anything peculiar.”

               “Yeah.. a regular sword.. a straight regular sword.. fancy that.. not a curved sword like the one you have now.”

Just then.. the voice of Wyee came through the night,

               “Who are you talking to?” She chuckled and approached me walking and pulling her horse behind, “Now Commander Hort.. sitting in the dark, talking to yourself how you shall impress everyone at the first council meeting.”

               “Isn’t it a little too late in the night for the chief councilor to make visits so far away from home?” I spoke still sitting in my place on the grass.

She came to sit next to me saying,

               “I am worried about you.. you have made your first appearance in the meeting a precarious one.”

               “How do you figure that?”

               “Your public row with Commander Trapp this morning has become public knowledge all over BKC and beyond.”

I scoffed and after a short time of thinking, I picked my words carefully,

               “Well.. you seem to have already made up your mind about what happened. No need for me to explain any further.”

               “Oh but explain, you will have to.. because I am sure Trapp will bring it up in the meeting and you shall be in a very bad position.. you said you didn’t want the promotion and you reject it.. this a very big deal.”

I had to laugh gently,

               “Oh no.. the idiot.. I cannot believe he fell for that.”

               “What do you mean?” She was surprised.

               “Never mind.. as you said.. I shall have to explain.. so the time shall come to explain in front of everyone.” I continued to laugh.

               “You sneaky animal.. you must have some trick up your sleeve.” She was intrigued, “So where is Heela now?”

               “Oh, you know about Heela too.. let me assure you councilor, whatever fabrication the little brain of commander Trapp has come up with, will really embarrass him badly.. I shall make sure of it.”

               “So you have it all under control?” She asked, “I wonder when shall your luck run out?”

               “Luck? My dear Wyee, luck has nothing to do with it.. when you are pitting your lot against such petty creature like Trapp.. you need also to pity him.”

She was about to say something.. but then she changed her mind.. got up silently.. and as she grabbed her horse she said without looking at me,

               “You shall need to get to the BKC a little before midnight, so Instine may show you the way to the meeting site.. it is your first meeting and all.”

The following day, I took a closer look at the documents Bryane left in my chambers, I was beginning to understand how the Vino soldiers were able to leave the MEMOC before it was burned down.. I knew they were out, when I examined the rubble, but the perplexing question to me remained.. how did they do it without being noticed? Now that I understood what happened..what baffled me further, was the fact that this was supposed to be common information.. at least to the commanders of the inner castles.. yet, knowing how little credence a creature like Trapp would give to the faculty of thinking, it would be understandable why events unfolded the way they did. I sent Heela packing through the regular road to the BKC to report back to her mentor. I gave Metz strict instruction.. and in the evening I jumped to the BKC early enough to test the level of hostility, Trapp was preparing for me.. I was still having my arm in a sling, though I could move it now and I even carried my sword for some light practice.. but I thought the appearance would lend more emphasis to my part in the events. The first person I met was Pruste, who came to attend the meeting too, and told me that Bryane would not come because he does not like these meetings and he only comes when there is a compelling reason for him to do so. I was surprised to see Ozot, who showed some unexpected civility to me.. since he certainly knew about my friction with Geetieh. I learned that the latter lost his padded position in BSC to become a contender at Malaab Castle, which made me chuckle for the mere thought of this sneaky guy dealing with a brute like Trapp.. he must have been really relieved when Trapp was transferred to MEMOC.. I figured it would have been a show to enjoy watching.. there were some others whom I did not recognize, even though they recognized me.. which was really amusing.. I saw Deemeon briefly but for some reason he was aloof and left the place very fast.. Wyee told me where to find Instine and told me that she would not attend.. because, as she put it, ‘she would not like to watch me lose my most important battle at last’

I didn’t try to meet Instine. I thought I could accompany one of the other commanders, so I looked for Oldefol, yet Instine found me and asked to accompany me to the meeting, so I agreed.

As we walked together towards the red cottage, I felt my stomach turn inside me with the memories of that stormy night.. so far in the past now.. while listening to him explain how the warning sign was placed and the snare was set to catch violators..

When we arrived at the cottage, the door was closed.. and he explained how it would always be half way open and how the mechanism works.. then he opened it, and yelled loudly,

               “Commander Instine and commander Hort of OC Front.”

The room was lit by an annoying blue light.. we stepped inside and I saw the room had no floor, except for a small platform all around, next to the walls.. the floor was replaced by a large net and no doubt any outsider who walks in for the first time would step in and get caught into this net.. however, as soon as Instine mentioned our names and we stepped on the platform the floor was restored and appeared like a normal room.. the sound of a loud horn blew to announce our presence, and he said,

               “This is the horn greeting for OC”

I looked around to see several doors, and I knew one of those doors would lead to the room with the suspended wire bed.. I walked to the next door and opened it, but Instine sternly said,

               “Commander Hort.. the way is from here.” And he grabbed my arm and opened another door, leading to a spiral stairwell.. I followed him, and it seemed deep..so I said,

               “This is strange.. knowing Bryane, why didn’t he come up with a mechanical means to lower people and raise them up again instead of all these stairs.”

               “A very good question.. I asked him myself and he gave me a long complicated answer which I didn’t care for.. in short, he thought this is more secure.”

The bottom of the stairs lead to a door which he opened to reveal a large room with numerous passages.. some were marked Red  and others marked blue.. while one passage was marked yellow, and this is the one we walked into, and along the way we met a jumpy man wearing a blue coat, like those assistants of Bryane at DC.. He made a remark that we were a little early, and Instine shrugged it off,

               “Who is that?” I asked

               “That is Dr. Miniee..he is one of the assistants to Cface..” He answered curtly as if to discourage further questions. We wound up from one corridor to the other and ended up before a large door,

               “This is the library.. where the meeting is held. So, if you come by yourself next time, you shall need to follow the same protocol, say your name at the top, and when the mechanism is made safe, you come down the stairs, follow the yellow corridor and you reach this door.”

               “But you certainly noticed that half those corridors do not have the yellow markings,” I corrected

when I followed him inside the library, He smiled flatly and was surprised and said he would look into it. I looked around me and was quite impressed.. there was a long table on one side of the room..  with chairs on each side and one at the far end near the wall.. while the rest of the room had scattered small tables surrounded by chairs .. but the most impressive was the walls.. all the walls were lined from the ceiling to the floor with shelves loaded with books, and various other scrolls and materials..