This Battle Lord's Quest Read online

  Table of Contents

  Cover Page

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  This Battle Lord’s Quest

  Book 5 of the Battle Lord Saga

  by

  Linda Mooney

  Copyright © 2013 by Linda Mooney

  ISBN 978-0-9859300-5-9

  Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.

  Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the

  FBI and is punishable by up to 5 (five) years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Names, characters and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s

  imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or

  persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the

  publisher.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,

  electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and

  retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

  Cover: Ash Arceneaux

  Editor: Diana Castilleja

  For more information about Linda Mooney books and titles, please visit her website.

  www.LindaMooney.com

  The Battle Lord Saga

  The Battle Lord's Lady

  Her Battle Lord's Desire

  A Battle Lord's Heart

  One Battle Lord's Fate

  This Battle Lord's Quest

  Chapter One

  Saxon

  “Hoss.”

  “Umm, what?” Atty turned around and glanced down at her son. Mattox had his face pressed against the rough-hewn poles and was peering through the small space between them. She automatically checked the rope tethered to her belt and his. Satisfied he was safe in case he accidentally fell from the catwalk, she looked over the wall and down the road. There was nothing as far as she could tell coming from either direction.

  “Mummy, hoss.” This time he poked a chubby finger in the space and pointed toward the north. Atty squinted her eyes, but still couldn’t spot what her son was talking about.

  “Sutters!”

  The guard standing below them at the gate peered up at her. “Yes, Madam?”

  “Fetch the Battle Lord. Make sure he brings a spyglass.”

  “Yes, Madam. Have the Battle Lord bring a spyglass,” the guard repeated and hurried away.

  Walking over to where Mattox continued his investigation between the logs in the compound’s wall, she picked him up and perched him on her hip. “Show me where the horse is.”

  Again, the toddler pointed north. “Hoss. Dere.” His eyes were a dark pink color, and intently focused on what he was watching. She tried again to catch what was coming down the road, holding a hand over her eyes to shield them from the bright sunlight.

  “Atty, what’s going on?”

  She heard her husband ascending the ladder, and waited for him to join them before answering. “Mattox sees a horse coming.”

  “Hey, son! Where’s the horse, Matt?” Yulen took the boy from Atty and bounced him on his own hip. Mattox laughed as he clutched his father’s jerkin with both hands. Yulen gave his wife an odd look. “There’s traffic moving up and down that road all day, every day. Why did you have me paged?”

  Atty threw a thumb over her shoulder. “Do you see a horse right now?” She watched him check the deserted highway that was the main artery connecting compounds for over a thousand miles. He took in both directions before he lifted an eyebrow in her direction. Smiling, Atty nodded.

  “I can’t see one, either.”

  “You can’t, but he can?”

  She nodded.

  Yulen handed their son over to her, then grabbed the spyglass from his back pocket. Pulling out the telescoping case, he peered through it. “Which way?”

  “From the north.”

  He tried again. After a moment, he moved further down the catwalk for a better angle. “All right. I see it now. Single rider.” He lowered the spyglass and pointed. “Come look.”

  Atty joined him, first using the spyglass, then trying to eyeball it. “Damn.”

  “Yeah. The boy’s got the eyesight of an eagle.” Yulen pressed his forehead to his son’s curly locks. “Those Mutah eyes of yours are quite something, Matt. I can’t wait to find out what else you’re capable of seeing when you get older and understand what you’re able to do.”

  Using the eyeglass again, Atty scanned the horizon. “I wonder who in their right mind would travel alone?”

  “Someone who’s either very well armed, or who doesn’t know any better, or just doesn’t give a damn.” Yulen dropped a kiss to his wife’s hair before handing over their son. He also gave the tether an experimental tug. Atty waited for him to comment about it, but he didn’t. “I need to get back to work. Don’t wait for me to join you at supper. There’s no telling how long this meeting will last.”

  She nodded, understanding. She and Mattox waved at the figure who waved back before hurrying away.

  “Duddy go bye-bye.”

  “He has to go do whatever Battle Lords need to do, Mattox. Some of the time, I don’t quite see the point of what he does, but that’s not important. He’s a good Battle Lord, and when you get older, he’s going to teach you everything you need to know, so that when it’s time for you to take over running Alta Novis, you’ll be just as good as him, if not better.” She studied the child’s eyes again, noting their pale color. Mattox had heard what she’d said, although he didn’t quite comprehend everything.

  “Duddy Badow Ward.”

  Atty laughed and gave the child a buss on the cheek. “Yep. And that makes you the Badow Pwince. Come on. Let’s go visit Grandmama. Hold on tight!”

  Going down the ladder, she discovered, was just as difficult climbing up when a hefty two year old was cradled against her chest. Mattox was also strong for his age, a result of his Mutah heritage, and twice she had to pause to peel his arm away from her neck so she could breathe.

  When they reached the ground, the child tried to run from her, but the tether snapped him backwards, and he landed on his bottom in the dirt. Mattox turned ruby red eyes to her, showing his frustration and anger. Chuckling again, she untied him. “Don’t be in such a hurry. All right. There. Now you can go.”

  Finally free from his mother, the todd
ler hurried off in the direction of the main lodge. Atty followed, but quickly lost sight of the child.

  The dining hall held a few stragglers, all of whom greeted her when she entered.

  “Mattox?”

  “That way,” they answered, pointing to the rear of the hall.

  Atty waved a thank you as she strode through the room, heading for the partially open doorway with the sign that read CLINIC nailed on the wall beside it. Without knocking, she entered and passed on through to the waiting room.

  There was one person seated in the narrow area. Atty didn’t recognize the young man, but he smiled at her as she passed through.

  “Hi, Atty!”

  “Hi. Did Mattox come this way?”

  Instead of pointing toward the hospital side, the man indicated the back rooms where MaGrath and Madigan lived. “That way.”

  “Thanks.”

  She finally found her son sitting in one of the overstuffed chairs by the fireplace. Across from him, his grandmother sat in a similar chair as she knitted. Atty paused, taking in the woman’s rounded belly. She also noted with great concern the dark circles under the woman’s eyes. “How are you feeling today, Maddy?” Reaching over, she shoved an ottoman over by the woman, then helped to lift her legs to prop on the cushion. “Better?”

  “Thank you. I’ve been fighting the swelling.”

  “Scoot over, son,” Atty ordered the boy, and sat down in the chair beside him. “You didn’t answer me,” she reminded the woman.

  Madigan gave her daughter-in-law a wan smile. “I’m beginning to think I had an easier pregnancy with Yulen.”

  “That was over thirty years ago,” Atty reminded her.

  “True.”

  The older woman winced. Clutching the side of her swollen stomach, she caught her breath, eyes squeezed shut. Atty leaned over, laying a hand on the woman’s leg. “Maddy?”

  “It’s...all right. Sometimes...sometimes little MaGrath gets a bit rambunctious.” She smiled again, but Atty could tell the woman was in pain.

  “I well remember the discomfort Mattox gave me. Can I get you something?”

  “No, no. I’ll be fine. Liam’s always harping that I don’t get enough rest, but I don’t sleep well in the bed anymore. I’ve spent so much time in this chair, it’s nearly glued itself to my behind.”

  They both laughed softly. Madigan stared into the fire with a soft look in her eyes.

  “I never thought I would admit that having Yulen before I turned seventeen was a wise decision. At the time, our parents were furious.”

  Atty sat up. “You were sixteen when you got pregnant? Are you saying you and Rory got married after the fact?”

  Madigan gave her a trembling smile. “Are you shocked?”

  “No. Well...yeah.”

  “Don’t be. So we jumped the gun. We were already betrothed to each other. We just had to move the date of the wedding up a few months.”

  “Was Liam already in Far Troit, studying to be a doctor at that time?”

  “Oh, he’d left about a year before.”

  The room got quiet except for the little noises Mattox made as he played with a small wooden toy horse. After a while, the child scooted off the chair and got down on his hands and knees in front of the fire, pretending to have the animal travel across the stone hearth.

  “Have you and Liam decided on any names yet?”

  “Ah.” Madigan chuckled and laid her knitting atop her bulging belly. “That’s still a bone of contention, I’m afraid. We’ve agreed on Celeste if it’s a girl. That was his mother’s name. But we’re nowhere near on reaching a compromise on a boy name.”

  “Don’t tell me he still wants to name his son Augustus?” Every time she thought of it, it made her laugh. “Gus MaGrath. Yulen says it sounds like a prizefighter.”

  Atty heard the woman’s heavy sigh, and knew it had nothing to do with their conversation. This pregnancy was giving the woman major health issues, and had been ever since the beginning of her second trimester, but Madigan was determined to see it through. Many said she was too old to be bearing this baby, yet she loved Liam so much, she was willing to take the risks to give her husband a child of his own.

  Looking down at her son, Atty noticed the boy playing with the hand-carved animal that Mastin had made for his godson. “I wondered where that was. Where did you have it, Mattox? In your pocket?”

  “I think it was accidentally stuffed down beside the seat cushion,” Madigan commented. She started to say more when they caught the sound of a commotion coming from the clinic. The sound grew louder, until a guard burst into the living room. He was gasping for breath, having run all the way.

  “Atty!”

  She didn’t need to be told any more. Guards didn’t come seeking her out with that look of urgency on their faces unless there was a good reason.

  “I’ll watch Mattox!” Madigan called out to her as she bolted from the room to follow the soldier.

  They ran toward the front gate and climbed the same ladder she had used minutes before. Another guard was waiting for her with a longbow and cradle of arrows when she hit the parapet.

  “What’s up?”

  Beyond the walls, she could make out the squad of men already at war with an enemy she couldn’t identify. A second later, the Battle Lord hurtled through the main gates, along with another dozen men, to join the skirmish. She watched the horses going in directly, not circling the group and attacking from the outside as was their normal strategy. There was something in the center that the men were fighting to protect, and Yulen was determined to reach it.

  “Marauders, my Lady,” the guard stated.

  She nodded. In the past few months, she and Yulen, as well as other Battle Lords from neighboring compounds, had come to realize that the Bloods had moved on. In which direction, no one was certain. But since the creatures’ massive defeats while trying to overrun several of the fortresses last spring, apparently the mutants had decided to leave in search for easier targets. There hadn’t been a reported Blood attack in the area for weeks, and that had left the stage wide open for someone to take their place.

  With trade opening up between Normal and Mutah compounds, many towns were prospering. As a result, small knots of men calling themselves Marauders had started a campaign to attack and rob unsuspecting merchants traveling between compounds. Ordinary families moving from one location to another appeared to be immune to the raids. But if the caravan looked to contain valuable goods, it was quickly overrun and decimated. Worse, the Marauders were not squeamish about slaughtering the drivers and riders if they put up any resistance.

  Atty squinted, trying to catch a glimpse of her husband, now in the middle of the melee. The late September sun was starting its descent, and the light was almost blindingly bright.

  Suddenly, Yulen broke away from the pack. Someone appeared to be in the saddle behind him, desperately holding onto the Battle Lord as they galloped across the field toward the main gate. She watched them draw nearer, when she caught sight of two men, also on horseback, leaving the main scuffle to pursue. She had an arrow nocked on the bow without thinking, and aimed it at the nearest man chasing at full gallop.

  The arrow’s impact in the center of his chest lifted the man out of his seat and carried him over the back of the horse. Although riderless, the animal continue to follow Yulen toward the compound.

  The second man saw his partner fall, and pulled up on the reins. It was the wrong thing to do. The arrow meant for him sunk into the middle of his face, killing him instantly.

  Down the road, the conflict was dissipating. The few Marauders left were beaten back by Battle Lord’s soldiers, and eventually disbursed, vanishing amid the thick forest bordering the road.

  Atty turned around to see her husband and his passenger thunder through the gates and come to a halt. Handing the bow back to the guard, she hurried down the ladder as the two men dismounted.

  As she drew closer to the newcomer, her eyes grew wider in d
isbelief at what she was seeing. The man was old, if not elderly. His hair was snowy white and jutted out in ragged tufts from his head. His brown face was lined with age, reminding her of well worn leather. He wore a jerkin and breeches of dull yellow on his tall, lanky frame, but they were almost hidden by the long black coat and miles of small bottles and tiny pouches tied together and strung over and around his shoulders and across his chest, giving the impression he was caught within a net. Amazed by the man’s appearance, she almost missed the thin hand that stretched out to shake hers.

  “I am told you are the master shot who took out those two brigands. I thank you.” The man glanced over her with eyes that were almost crystalline blue. “I am Saxon.”

  “Saxon?” She recognized their visitor not by sight, but by name. “Doctor Saxon?”

  “Well, I would prefer to be called just Saxon. Or you may call me Manderly. I don’t care, as long as you don’t forget to call me to supper.” The old man snickered at his own joke.

  At Atty’s questioning glance, Yulen nodded. “I’ve already sent word to Liam. We’re to meet him inside the dining hall. Come, Saxon. Let me show you the way.”

  Atty remained standing in the front courtyard and watched Yulen lead the elderly physician to the large building at the end of the corridor. The man Liam and Madigan had sent for, and had prayed for, ever since Madigan nearly miscarried in her fourth month.

  This guy had made his way here, all the way from Far Troit, by himself? It was almost unbelievable, and a miracle he managed to arrive unhurt and intact, save for the last few hundred yards.

  But miracles were what they were needing if Madigan was going to survive the baby’s birth. According to MaGrath, if anyone could save his wife’s life, it would be through the medical miracles of one Dr. Manderly Saxon.

  Chapter Two

  Bells

  Atty entered the clinic in time to see MaGrath and Saxon embracing emphatically and patting each other on the back amid loud cries of welcome. In fact, Liam was in tears to see the old man, and he held him at arm’s length to evaluate Saxon’s condition.