Forest Kingdom Trilogy 1 - Blue Moon Rising

was sure I'd never see you again.'
    'So I gathered,' said Rupert dryly. 'In the courtyard, half of them acted like they'd seen a ghost. Hey, wait a minute, didn't the goblins tell you I was still alive? They did get here all right, didn't they?'
    'Yes,' said the King. 'Unfortunately. But that was months ago. You were supposed to be back long before this.'
    There was a pause as they looked at each other, their faces carefully impassive, each waiting for the other to say something.
    'You could at least say you're glad to see me again,' said Rupert, finally. 'Or wasn't I supposed to come back from this quest either?'
    'You haven't changed,' said the King. 'You haven't changed at all, Rupert.'
    'Don't bet on it,' said Rupert, and there was a sudden, unyielding harshness in his voice that startled the King, and drew another thoughtful frown from Harald. Rupert ignored them both, and turned on the High Warlock. 'Now you've had time to think about it, sir Warlock, perhaps you'd care to tell me what the hell went wrong with your teleport spell. We should have arrived here long before the Blue Moon was full.
    You promised me your spell would get us here in time. I trusted you, High Warlock.'
    'It wasn't my fault,' said the Warlock, almost defiantly. 'Somebody in this Castle interfered with my spell,
    so that we arrived at the right place, but the wrong time.'
    'Somebody here?' said Rupert. 'Are you sure?'
    'Of course I'm sure! I'm the High Warlock! Whoever it was, he isn't very powerful. He couldn't break or distort the spell, just deflect it. As far as I can make out, we were supposed to arrive even further in the future, after the Castle had fallen, but his magic wasn't strong enough, compared to mine.'
    Rupert shook his head slowly, trying to follow the explanation. 'How could anyone here have interfered with your spell? Nobody here knew we'd be coming back by teleport.'
    'The Demon Prince knew,' said the High Warlock.
    A quiet murmur rustled through the Court, and several courtiers looked nervously about them, as though just the mention of his name might somehow be enough to summon the Dark Prince in person. The King leaned forward on his throne, scowling and tugging angrily at his beard.
    Rupert looked closely at the Warlock. 'Are you saying the Demon Prince himself had something to do with your spell going wrong?'
    'Indirectly, yes. He has no power outside the Darkwood, but he can work through human agents.
    Somewhere in this Castle, there is a traitor who serves the dark.'
    'That much we already know, sir Warlock,' growled the King. 'But can you name him?'
    'Not easily, he's covered his tracks too well. Given time, perhaps—'
    'We don't have the time,' snapped Rupert. 'We can worry about unearthing traitors after we've done something about the demons outside our walls. Father, how many armed men can we put in the field at one time?'
    'Not many, Rupert, the plague hasn't left us much in the way of manpower.'
    'Plague?' Rupert's skin crawled suddenly, and a cold breeze seemed to caress the back of his neck.
    'What plague?'
    The King smiled sourly. 'A great deal has happened since you left, Rupert. The plague has been with us for months, a sickness and a fever that weakens and finally kills. We've tried everything, but nothing works against it. It swept across the Forest like a flash fire, and entered the Castle a good week or more before the darkness finally fell.'
    'How many people have we lost?' asked Rupert quietly.
    'Hundreds,' said the King. 'Possibly thousands. There's no way of telling any more.'
    'Damn!' The High Warlock screwed up his face, as though he'd just bitten into something sour, his eyes burning with sudden insight. 'I knew it! As soon as Rupert told me about the unicorn losing his horn to the demons, I knew there had to be a reason!'
    'I don't follow you,' said Rupert. 'What has the unicorn's horn got to do with the plague?'
    'Everything,' said the Warlock. 'Two facts, Rupert. First, it is the Demon Prince's nature to corrupt.
    Second, a unicorn's horn has one special property, to detect and cure poisons. Put these two facts together, and the source of the plague becomes obvious — a debased unicorn's horn that spreads poison instead of curing it. In the Demon Prince's hands, that horn has produced a sorcerous plague, spread by his demons, incurable by any natural or unnatural means.'
    'If there is no cure,' said the King slowly, 'then we've no way of stopping it. Eventually, everybody in the Land