Search for Dastardly Part 2

'Tell me more about what happened between Krotar and Dastardly,' Adrian said as he guided Renda and his horse back to the farm.

'Nothing of note. Krotar was little less than insane when Dastardly bumped into us.'

'Why would you work with such a man?' Adrian knocked on the barn again. 'Your Highness, I require use of the object I brought to you earlier today.'

The voice of the king radiated across the dim countryside.

'Of course Sir Knight. Do not try to enter yet.'

They heard a bolt slide back, and the door opened a sliver.  The king's arm protruded with a glass shard in hand. Adrian handled the glass by the smooth base on which it stood, the letters “d'Aseere” visible below his fingers. The door closed again, the bolt was replaced and the knight thought he heard a faint giggle from the other side.

Renda looked bemused by the whole process. 'I had little choice but to work with Krotar, he was my senior.'

Adrian took the shard around the wall and placed it on a shoulder-level bail of straw. His horse made snuffling noises as she happily chewed on hay behind them.

With no indications to the contrary, Renda continued. 'Besides, he seemed fine when we left Donhen. Only when we met Nius did he start acting paranoid and suspicious.'

The knight was patting the pockets on his person.

'What are you doing?'

He procured a stone with asymmetrical runes carved into it.

'This here,' he pointed to the shard of glass, upright on the straw, 'is a dark artefact. I'm sure of it. The previous owner went crazy trying to use it to look into the past. This morning I was in the plains capital; I tried to find information on it in the library. Nothing on this particular device, but from what I read, I think we can find Dastardly without too many adverse side effects.'

'It's you who's crazy,' said Renda. 'I suppose that in your hand is an ancient com-stone?'

'This is a communication stone from our old city. I've seen the shard display the speaker at the other end.'

'Yeah right, a com-stone. I don't believe you.'

'Go ahead,' said Adrian. 'We'll see.'

He stepped to the side. 'Try not to look directly at the glass. I'm eighty percent sure you won't lose your mind if we keep exposure to a minimum, but we should still be cautious.'

Renda folded her arms and gazed in his direction while Adrian pressed his thumb to an engraving on the stone. He thought of the freelancer he'd left on the steps of the palace.

'Hello?' he said. 'This is Sir Adrian Salem –'

The glass changed from subtly reflecting the environment to showing a bespectacled man. High hair, floppy cape and busybody demeanour: certainly not the freelancer.

'Goodness!' Renda stepped back. 'It works!'

'Remember not to stare at the glass!'

'What did you say?' The man had pulled the freelancer's com-stone from a pocket and pressed the rune.

'Where is Dastardly Medieval?' said the knight.

'Who did you say you were?'

'I helped the freelancer at Hox,' Adrian said. He risked a direct look. 'Is your name Waory? Do you work for the Regent?'

'I used to work for him. If you're asking after Dastardly, too bad – he's been killed.'

Adrian turned back to Renda. 'You were right.'

'I doubt they got there so quickly.' She stood beside the knight and yelled at the stone. 'How was Mr Medieval killed?'

'Quiet, sheesh!' Waory shook his head. 'I can hear you. The Land-Regent went mental and poisoned him.'

'This isn't right,' said Adrian. 'Krotar, Siy, the Regent – all not acting like themselves.'

There was a dull thrump that shuddered through them as they stood by the shard.

'Are you forgetting that a person is dead?' Renda said.

'I'm not so sure,' said Waory. Another thrump, louder this time, shook them to the bone. Out of the com-stone, Adrian thought he heard a smaller sound, like drumming from miles away. 

'Sir Knight, you had better come and see what has happened to your friend. An odd order of events may be upon us.'

There was a third thrump, somehow foreboding. The drums were getting louder.

'Did you have to put it like that?' Adrian said. 'This is getting creepy.' The knight had to raise his voice over the drums, mixing in with two more thrumps and a flash of white light across the shard.

'You're breaking up,' Waory called out. The com-stone grew hot in Adrian's hand, the next flash on the shard showing something with lots of teeth.

'If this is your fault, Dastardly...!' The knight threw the com-stone into the air as it shone bright red.

'Take cover!' he said. As they dived towards the barn wall, the com-stone burst above them, showering the field with tiny burning rocks.