Return of the Stormcriers

CHAPTER 27 - AWAKE

Nathan leaned his weight into Gattis, bending his knees and alternating lifting his legs as he attempted to quickly rebuild his strength. He turned to face Jahn and Paul, wishing to address all three of his men at once. While he was very familiar with Captain Gattis, conferring with the Captain nearly every day since he was only four years old, Paul had also served in his personal guard since the first time he had left the palace without his father when he was thirteen. Nathan regretted bitterly that he had not taken time to know the man more personally before now. Jahn had been a relatively new addition to his personal guard, having served for only a year, yet here he was, a young man roughly the same age as himself, traveling on the run with his Prince after saving his life without so much as the hint of a complaint on his lips. Nathan had always prided himself on treating his men with much more compassion and humanity than his fellow nobles, always taking the time to listen when they spoke, feeding them before he fed himself; he never took for granted that his men would willingly lay their lives on the line to protect him, spending days and weeks at a time away from their families on the whim of their young Prince's travels and obligations. He had even made sure to eat with his men, hoping to impress upon them that he did not take their sacrifices lightly, and did not consider himself to be as untouchable as many other Verden nobility were convinced they were. Those were large group settings however, and while he had been able to converse with almost every one of his men, there were always too many at once to get to know any particular soldier on a more personal level.

"What happened after I fell unconscious?" He asked, wanting to know every detail that he had missed.

"After our attackers killed poor Helvar, you unleashed the largest display of power I have ever seen," Gattis said, helping Nathan steady on his own two feet. "The entire tunnel filled with light and sound, I thought I was going to be made blind or deaf by it. The men in front of you were scattered by the blast like saplings before a hurricane; I do not know if any of them survived. When you fell I picked you up and ran as fast as I could manage. Outside of a brief stop to sleep we have not stopped moving." Nathan admired how descriptively his captain spoke. Gattis always sounded much more eloquent than the majority of the other soldiers Nathan had spent time around, including the officers.

"Did any of you recognize our attackers?" He asked, grasping for any information that could help him identify his father's murderers.

  "I did not recognize either of the two men who intercepted us in the secret passage, and it was too chaotic to get a good look at any of our other attacker's faces," Gattis said shaking his head.

"I have been stationed in the castle for fifteen years and I do not remember seeing those men, my Lord," Paul agreed.

Nathan's mind whirled with possibilities, had the men that attacked them been a rogue unit of the Verden military that had sworn their allegiance to the resistance? Or had rebel soldiers infiltrated the palace from the outside disguised as guards? What was almost more worrying to him was the fact that they had known where to find the secret passageway in the first place. The only plausible explanation was that someone very high up in his father's inner circle had betrayed Verden to work with their attackers. Unless someone had gotten extremely lucky when scouting the palace before the attack. His thoughts drifted towards his newly appointed Steward, Leonardo Bernoulli. If there was a high ranking traitor they may already be working to undermine his temporary rule. Had the traitors already tried to assassinate him as well? Was he even still alive? It had been an enormous risk for the advisor to assume stewardship of Verden while Alexander was found and Nathan prayed that his father's former advisor was safe. Bernoulli should only remain in charge for a week, possibly two at the most, while he waited for Alexander to return to take his father's place as the rightful heir to the throne; but in that time the rebel's target would be squarely on the advisor's back.