Forest Kingdom Trilogy 1 - Blue Moon Rising

confidently through the dispersing crowd, and shook his head slowly. Harald had always had the gift of words, when he chose to use it. That empty-headed routine of his might fool the Court, but Rupert knew better. Ever since they were children, Harald had always been able to manipulate people and situations so that he came out on top, usually at Rupert's expense.
    For all his faults, and there was no denying Harald had many, he was an excellent organiser. Before the evening was over, he'd have drafted a list of all the refugees' complaints, and set up a system for dealing with those that really mattered. Rupert sighed disgustedly, sheathed his sword, and leaned back against the Castle wall. There was a time when he'd thought Harald only did such things in order to look good, while still leaving the bulk of the work to other people, but now he saw it was just another reason why Harald would some day be King, while he never would. Harald was a diplomat. Rupert shrugged. Stuff diplomacy. Try using tact and reason with a demon, and it'd rip your head off.
    He turned away and nodded gratefully to Chane and his men-at-arms. 'Thanks for standing by me. It could very easily have turned nasty.'
    The men-at-arms hefted their pikes bashfully, and bowed quickly in return.
    'Sorry about the refugees, Sire,' said Chane. 'You can't really blame them, they lost everything they had when the dark came. I doubt there's a family here that hasn't lost a child or a parent to the demons.
    They've been frightened and helpless for so long, they needed someone they could strike back at. It just happened to be you.'
    'Yeah, well,' said Rupert tiredly. 'Thanks anyway.'
    'Sure,' said Chane. 'If you ever need us again, you know where to find us. We'd better get back on duty, I suppose; the demons could come any time.'
    He bowed again, and led his men-at-arms back to the gatehouse. Rupert watched them go, and frowned thoughtfully. Either Chane was the most forgiving man he'd ever met, or there was something going on here he didn't know about. Or maybe . . . Rupert smiled suddenly. Or maybe he was just getting paranoid again; coming home to the Castle could do that to you. He sighed, and turned back to his waiting guardsmen. At least he didn't have to worry about them, they'd been loyal to him since the
    very beginning. Even though they had no real reason to be ... After all, the Champion only obeyed him because the King ordered him to ... Rupert shook his head angrily, but the thought wouldn't go away. He knew he had to ask the question, if only because he was so afraid of what the answer might be. Either way, he had to know. He ignored the patiently waiting Champion, and moved on to confront Rob Hawke.
    'Why have you remained loyal to me?' he asked bluntly. 'When I started out I had a full troop of fifty guards. I've brought only ten of you back. Don't you blame me for your friends' deaths?'
    Hawke shook his head slowly. 'We don't blame you for anything, Sire. We didn't expect to survive the Darkwood, never mind the Dark Tower. We figured to stick with you till we were safely out of sight of the Castle, and then we'd all desert. No offence, Sire, but what little we'd been told of you wasn't exactly encouraging. According to the Castle gossip, you'd never led guards before, you told impossible lies about having been through the Darkwood twice, and you were a coward. We'd no intention of following a man like that into battle.
    'And then we saw you take on your brother and the Champion, right here in the courtyard. You drew the Champion's blood — twice! No one's done that since he became Champion. After seeing that, it seemed likely the gossip was wrong. Taking on the Champion wasn't a particularly bright thing to do, but it proved you were a fighter. So, we figured we'd stick with you just long enough to talk you out of going to the Dark Tower, and then you could desert with us. The Champion would just have woken up one morning, and found us all gone. Simple as that.
    'And then we came to Coppertown. We saw what lived in the pit, and we saw you fight it, and win.
    After that . . . well, we started to believe in you, and your mission. And maybe we started to believe in ourselves, as well. It hasn't worked out too badly, all told. No one's ever faced the odds we have, and survived. We don't blame you for anything, Sire. We're proud to have served with you.'
    Rupert nodded stiffly, too overcome with emotion to speak. Thank you,' he said finally. 'I