Cerant's humor died, warm sympathy in his eyes as he said, "According to the whispers I caught, Koray and the demon are heading to Navath. She mentioned Neikirk, or at least said 'alchemist' so I think they are trying to meet up with Emel and Neikirk."
"Why?" Sorin asked. "What do they seek from those two?"
"I guess we'll find out when we meet up with them," Cerant said.
Sorin shook his head, starting to feel like himself again as the goal settled and a plan began to take shape. "No. You're the high priest, and whatever the Goddess intends for the future, you are still technically the crown prince—the king. There is no one else to take care of the castle and the people while I am gone. We cannot risk everyone."
"I am going," Cerant said. "I've ordered horses and supplies readied, and men to ride with us. Something tells me we will need them. The castle is being left in the capable hands of the steward and my master priests. They will manage without us for a little while. The Goddess said that we need all five—"
"What do you mean all five?" Sorin asked, voice cracking out, breaking slightly as realization struck him.
Cerant's expression said he knew Sorin had figured it out. "Whoever that demon was, he belongs in that fifth point. Like I said earlier, the Goddess made it clear we need to get both him and Koray back. He is a High Something, though She has not said yet what. He is Koray's match, your parallel."
Sorin closed his eyes, self-hatred washing over him. "Koray kept trying to talk to me about how demons might be redeemable. I would not listen."
"You, of all people, have reason to loathe demons and believe them beyond redemption. You are burdened with being the Goddess' sword; you cannot show mercy where others may. No one blames you for your decisions tonight, Sorin."
"They should."
"At least they are not dead. Many would have slain Koray and the demon without giving them any chance to speak. You talked. You argued. That showed a hope, a distant belief," Cerant said. He stood up, rounded the table, and pulled Sorin to his feet. Holding fast to his hands, he stared up at Sorin and said, "You have always been so faithful. Do not lose that faith now."
Sorin shook his head. "I never lose faith in the Goddess."
"I didn't mean the Goddess," Cerant said and playfully smacked his cheek, smiling faintly, fondly. "I meant faith in yourself. You always had that. Don't lose it."
Sucking in a deep breath, Sorin managed a nod. "Let us go after them, then." He glanced at the sword on the table, still wrapped in cheap, dirty cloth. Picking it up, he unwrapped it and cast the cloth in the fireplace, admiring the sword as it glinted and shone in the light. Testing it with a few easy swings, he said, "It's a beautiful sword."
Cerant's eyes glowed. "Take it with you."
"I was going to," Sorin said, recognizing the hot pulse in his chest. "Come on. Let's hope I can fix things and am not putting the entire castle at risk for a fool's errand."
Koray fervently hoped
that when everything was over he never had to fly again. He was never traveling anywhere except by way of walking. No wings. No horses. Just his own two feet. He was going to walk far away from the royal castle, far away from everything, especially stupid paladins and their damned foolish mouths.
"That is them," Brekk said excitedly, breaking into Koray's daydreams of murdering Sorin.
Then the words registered. "It is? Where? How can you tell?"
Brekk laughed. "There is little point in flying if you cannot clearly see what is on the ground. That is definitely them. Come on, down we go."
Koray
hated
the going down part. Hated it more than he hated anything else in the world. Except Sorin, who would forever hold position one in Koray's list of hatreds.
When they finally touched the ground and his feet were firmly planted, Koray drew his sword and braced himself as a surge of paladins and knights came at them.
"Stop!" Emel bellowed and every paladin and knight crashed to a halt. After they'd recovered from the abrupt stop, they fanned out to form a tight circle around Koray and Brekk. Emel pushed through the group, snapping orders to stand down and sheathe swords. Rounding on Koray and Brekk he asked, "What are you two doing here?"
All around them the men gasped, taken aback by Emel's words, but at a sharp gesture from him they fell into a restless silence. Emel stared at Brekk. "Are you all right? What's wrong? Why are you with Koray? What has happened?"
"There is much to explain," Brekk said quietly, starting to reach out but at the last letting his hand fall. "We had to leave and it felt right to come after you."
"We had nowhere else to go," Koray said bitterly. "Your High Paladin is a thrice-damned fool."
Brekk made a face. "He's a jealous fool, which is something quite different."
Koray scoffed, but said nothing further. Emel just looked more confused.
"Captain!" one of the men said. "That's a bloody demon! Why aren't you letting us kill it?"
"Him," Emel said quietly, shadows of resignation and fear in his eyes. "His name is Brekk, and he's my … he's mine," he said, voice firming. Turning to his men he said, "I found him in the woods some months ago and he is free of whatever mad frenzy usually consumes the demons. He is on our side—do you not recognize the demon that helped to slay the white demons that attacked the castle?"
The men remained unmoved. Koray tightened his grip on his sword and braced for the worst, wishing not for the first time that he possessed the battle power of the paladins. But his was to purify and banish and speak with the dead.
Emel threw his arms out, sword still sheathed, and said, "If you do not want to trust me, if you prefer not to stay, then go. But no one here has caused you harm and I will not tolerate their being harmed in turn. If you want to return to the castle then you may."
"Captain, you're bewitched—"
"No," Koray cut in before Emel could reply. "He most certainly is not. Brekk is pure—and human, for all he still looks demonic. I will not let you hurt him. I stood up to the High Paladin to defend him; do you think you are of any threat to me?"
The paladins did not look convinced and the one who had thus far spoken stepped forward, raising his sword. "You've been bewitched—"
"No one shows any sign of what you call 'bewitching'," came Neikirk's level voice. He pushed past the two knights who stood in front of him into the circle with Koray and the others. Staring at Brekk, purple eyes shining, he said, "Your energies are not like a normal demon's. They look more like Koray's, but darker. They are dangerously depleted, but the yellow taint that all demons carry is gone. If my theories are correct then I believe a priest is what you need."
Emel frowned. "A priest? We have a priest. Lisay! Where is—there you are. Come here."
"No!" shouted the paladin who seemed to have assumed control of the others while Emel stood among the guilty. Koray glared at him, only somewhat mollified when the man fell back, dismayed by whatever he saw in Koray's face. Still, he glowered at Emel as Lisay obediently joined the circle. "You would corrupt a priest?"
"Barken, that is enough," Emel said. "No one here is corrupted, and the priest is the best one to confirm that if you do not trust the alchemist."
"I would not expect them to trust me," Neikirk said. "Certainly let the priest verify my claims."
Lisay's hands shook as he raised them, but he looked at Emel and then at Brekk. "I feel no demonic presence. Should not the paladins feel it as well if it was there? Yet no one has mentioned it." He pressed one trembling hand to Brekk's chest and after a moment withdrew, tears streaming down his face. "He's no demon. Neikirk, Koray, and Emel speak true." He looked up at Brekk, met his eyes, and said, "The Goddess seldom speaks to me so clearly; it is the honor and duty of the High Priest to hear Her words with true clarity. But she does so tonight, and she says 'Welcome home, High Warlock of the Court of Five.' As the Goddess wills, let it be." Lisay bowed and withdrew.
"The priest has partially restored your energies," Neikirk said into the startled silence that had fallen. "Much like the way Koray and Sorin replenish and strengthen each other, so too do you and the priests of the living. If you are High Warlock, then I suspect that Master will be the one who best replenishes your energies."
Emel frowned. "But … " he looked at Koray, dismayed. "Koray and Sorin are lovers. If Cerant and Brekk are like them …"
Mouth quirking faintly, Neikirk said, "Intimate involvement is not necessary, at least not so far as I can tell. Anyway, the High Priest is quite firmly taken. As is, I believe, the demon?"
"Yes," Emel said quietly, and the look on his face when he finally looked at Brekk without holding anything back made Koray turn away.
He did not linger to see how the rest of the conversation went, but sheathed his sword before striding through the paladins, who moved hastily to get out of his way. Abandoning the campsite he barely glanced at, he retreated to the bank of a small stream and sat beneath the bare branches of a large tree. The ground was cold, but mercifully free of snow, and the growing dark suited Koray's mood perfectly.
What was he going to do? That reminder of how warm Sorin felt, how right it felt to touch him, was not one he needed. Why had everyone else been so willing to listen and Sorin …
Koray swallowed as the pain overwhelmed him again, hands balling into fists, nails biting into his palms. Sorin had put him in manacles, had never given him a chance. What was he supposed to do when the problem of the white demons had been resolved and everyone returned home?
Ugh. Home. No, no, no. He did not want to think of the royal castle as
home.
He didn't need a home. Of what use was a home? He had let himself grow comfortable at the royal castle and what happened to him? Sorin had clapped in manacles without hesitation. So much for home. He closed his eyes, seeing the entire encounter all over again in his mind. Sorin's face. Sorin's words.
But Brekk's words nagged at him, too. I've been around long enough to know when a man is lost in a jealous rage. If I had walked into a room to see Emel standing close to another man, and that man half-naked and the enemy, I would have handled the situation even worse.
He had only been trying to help Brekk. Why had Sorin not given him a chance to explain? Yet the more time passed, the more he played the whole incident over, the harder it became to blame everything on Sorin. Koray sighed and opened his eyes, tilting his head back to look up at the moonlight through the tree branches.
A twig snapped, leaves rustled, and he dropped his head and turned to watch as Emel approached him holding a steaming bowl. He knelt in front of Koray and offered it. "Here, eat. You're still entirely too skinny, necromancer." After Koray had taken it, Emel settled down close to him and asked, "How did you know about Brekk? How did you find him?"
"Intuition and the Goddess, on the finding," Koray said. "That oak tree draws many necromancers. Sadness surrounds it—a sadness that resonates with us. I figured if I were a demon who was no longer a demon and in love with a paladin, then the oak might be a meeting point."
Emel's brows shot up. "You knew Brekk and I …"
Koray snorted. "You were not very subtle about the way you looked at him when he flew off after helping us at the castle. I am astonished nobody else noticed, honestly. Combined with your questions when we went to see those farmers … it really was not hard to deduce."
"I'm glad it was you and not anyone else," Emel said with a sigh. "I fear what may have happened if someone else had figured it out first."
"Like Sorin?" Koray asked bitterly, then snapped his mouth shut and scowled at his stew, annoyed with himself.
Whatever he had expected, it was not for Emel to laugh softly. "Brekk told me a little bit about what happened, and I wish I could say I am surprised, but I'm not. Sorin excels at everything but his own life. He can lead men to battle, run the royal castle, calm entire cities … but has never managed to keep a lover longer than a month."
"We aren't lovers," Koray said, still unable to kick the bitterness. "We never were. A few kisses does not mean more than a few kisses." Even he wasn't naïve enough to think those kisses had ever meant anything. Even before the cabin, he had known that Sorin would eventually lose interest in him. And hadn't Emel just confirmed it by saying Sorin never kept a lover longer than a month?
"Sorin is only a couple of years younger than me. I was already with the knights, training to be a paladin, when he left the priesthood to join the knights. It was not long before we were training side by side every single day. We slept in the same room in the barracks, our beds were next to each other, and we ate most of our meals together. We fought our first battle side by side and have done the same practically every battle since. There's little we don't know about each other, brothers in arms as we are …"
"And?" Koray asked, wishing the conversation was over already. He was not used to talking, did not think he wanted to grow used to it. Talking just seemed to cause problems.
Emel's voice took on a hard note when he replied, "And the Sorin I know was an emotional brat who would lose his temper the moment he was provoked. Patience and control are hard-learned skills for him, not natural inclination. He is mostly a cautious man these days, to the point most seem to have forgotten just how often he was punished for fighting or disrespecting a superior. The man who tried to have you arrested is very much the Sorin I grew up with, the kind of man who would throw cautious and sense aside to bring home a necromancer. What is out of character for Sorin is that he would put up with the way that necromancer never seems to have anything nice to say."
Koray flinched. "Then maybe it's for the best he no longer feels like putting up with me. An unpredictable high paladin can only be a bad thing."
Sighing, Emel said, "That is not what I meant, necromancer. I mean—Sorin cares for you. Every other man or woman I have seen him with, the relationship begins and ends with what they do in bed. No one else has ever made him change his mind on anything, yet he listens to you time and again. How would you have felt if you had walked into that cabin and seen him wrapped around a half-naked demon? After you chased after him because he had snuck away?"