Page 14 - SagaOfBarak1

Apparently Aulric had hidden himself away these past days hiding inside his
great hall; the king was now both a weeping and broken man. Aye Aulric sat
even now in an empty hall. And it was a hall that had been in only the recent
past, a site of great banquets and lavish festivities. It was this hall, or well it least
had been, a place of great merriment, a place of high fellowship that was open
to all rich or poor alike. But oh how things had changed though, aye and they
had all changed in less than just a week. Now the kindly king’s beloved son, the
good and noble Prince Kye lay a broken dead thing, all struck down with
assassin’s arrows. And then on top of this dark sinister tragedy, there was yet
another liberty, this just as foul and just as cowardly. Aulric’s daughter, the Prince
Kye’s much loved popular younger sister Ellena had simply vanished without a
trace. This double disaster had all happened when brother and sister had been
riding out together in the dark woods south of the castle. Perhaps sadly she too
had been slain, and mayhap her body for now was merely concealed. Aye, hidden
in a woodland thicket, or maybe and at very best she had been kidnapped. Perhaps
she had been abducted and kidnapped for a ransom yet to be demanded. But if
so, then by whom and for why was the wonderment of it all? As of yet no one
knew the answer to these most perplexing of riddles, all were left to ponder. So
far there had been no contact from the killers of the Prince or from the abductors
of the Princess, who were of course obviously the same cruel callous people.
And as well as all of this, these cruel perpetrators had no apparent reason for this
heartbreaking outrage. Well at least none other than perhaps greedy bounty. But
then, with this being so why then had there been no ransom as yet been demanded?

Barak after some while sitting deliberating upon the bench seat arose to his
big booted feet somewhat stiffly. Next the ogre yawned as he stretched his huge
arms out with the weariness of his long travels. Once again the slayer moved his
great neck from side to side, and this he did, until once again, just as it did earlier,
creak then click itself into place. With a grunt of both pleasure and relief Barak
next bent over to speak to his long time friend. Now the slayer shook Hubert’s
hand, this while thanking him kindly for the information the guard had at long
length managed to convey over the past hour or more.
‘You say our good friend Aulric is right now in the great hall of the castle
Hubert?’ Barak asked this question with yet another long stretch and another
mouth gaping yawn.
Hubert took a drink of his ale then nodded his head.

‘Aye Barak, but he will see no one my high Lord, the King is fuelled with too
much drink and fuelled with even more black sorrow. Sadly I must say this, our
friend the king is not at all the same man he was when you left to retrieve the
lost Roman Standard. ’
Barak grumbled something in a strange tongue as he smiled thinly and peered
down at the bearded much troubled Hubert.

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