Within the Hollow Crown (26 page)

Chapter 72: Eye-Patch

Corthos led Jareld and Thor down the tunnels of the Pirates of Scratchy.

“Do you know where you’re going?” Jareld asked between panting breaths.

“That way,” was Corthos’ only answer, pointing straight ahead. Perhaps he was meant to be a pirate after all. His direction sense was flawless.

Finally, they took a sharp left, and they passed the first boundary of the Pirates’ domain. They sprinted around another turn—

And ran straight into Eye-Patch. He held his sword at arm’s length, pointing it right at Corthos’ throat.

“Nice little trick,” he said to Jareld. There was something different about him. He still didn’t have his left pinky finger, but that wasn’t all.

“Your eye-patch is on the wrong eye,” Jareld said to him, then repeated it for the benefit of his friends.

“No, my eye-patch is on my other eye,” he said. “Nothing was wrong with my eye. I always protect one eye, just in case. I won’t be seeing out of my left eye for a while now, thank you very much. But as soon as I escaped the inferno, I switched.”

“What did he say?” Thor asked.

“He said he can see,” Jareld said. Then, he spoke to Eye-Patch, “Listen, what do you want?”

“I want to kill you,” Eye-Patch said.

“No, seriously,” Jareld said, “We outnumber you three to one. And while I’m really just here for my good looks, Corthos can actually use a sword. So, what do you want?”

“Revenge for my King?” Eye-Patch said, more of a question than a statement.

“Look, do you have the map?” Jareld said.

“I know where it is.”

“And can you recognize any of the places on the map? Can you get us to a starting point?”

“Yes.”

“Then how about you help us. We only want the sword. You can keep all the gems and rubies and gold.”

“I don’t trust you. Why would you let me keep the goodies?”

“Did you see me fighting in there?” Jareld said.

“Yes.”

“Did it seem pathetic to you?”

“Very.”

“That’s because I’ve never practiced. I’m a scholar. An historian. I study a lot of things in books. The sword I’m seeking is magical, they say, but I don’t believe it. It’s probably just a rusty sword. But to me, it would mean fame and fortune in the academic community. A relic. An artifact.”

Eye-Patch stared at him in amazement. He lowered his blade.

“You were able to say all that, and you couldn’t find a better insult than very, very bad?”

“I had a prudent teacher.”

“Fine. I’ll help.”

“Great. Let’s go.”

Eye-Patch struck off and Jareld followed. Corthos and Thor shuffled in place for a moment.

“You think we’re supposed to go with them?” Thor asked.

Corthos took off after Jareld, “I do wish you boys would keep me in the loop on these things.”

Book
6

Darkness Braved

Chapter
73: The Numbers

The Turin army kept moving south and west. They were unstoppable.

It was an army thirty thousand strong when they had started. That would be considered a large army under any circumstances. Just by sheer volume, they could do a lot of damage.

But it wasn’t the numbers, as the Rone armies were learning. After weeks of campaigning, after conquering six of the twelve Counties of Rone, only six hundred Turin warriors had died. Meanwhile, the Rone suffered complete losses. The brutal, attacking horde left no survivors, military or civilian. They hunted everyone down. They burned everything in their paths. They tore up the very cities of the Kingdom.

Their intention was not to conquer. They were not interested in earning a tithe, or a tribut
e. They did not want new slaves or new castles from which to rule. They wanted to change the land itself. They wanted to remove the infestation of the Rone from the continent. They wanted to leave the land open so that they could live as they once had; a small population spread across a large, beautiful land. They wanted to feel free.

And using that fanatic purpose, Argos had given them a sort of protection that cannot be bought. The magic that he taught his pupils, the magic that Vye was now discovering, was child’s play compared to his full potential. He had given his armies magical grace. An unholy, unnatural helping hand. His soldiers weren’t just better fighters. They were aided by forces unseen.

So when one of the Turin soldiers was hit with an arrow, it deflected just off center. When a Rone footman landed a blow on a Turin fighter, the sword glanced to the side. The Turin suffered wounds where they should have had casualties. It wasn’t perfect. But it was a small edge played out a thousand times. Or, more accurately, thirty thousand times. The results were staggering. The Kingdom had lost more than 50,000 men, women, and children. The Turin, about 600.

And now they were down to the final stage of their assault. Only Avonshire, Brimford, Deliem, Ralsean, Arwall, and Trentford remained free. Most of the population of the Kingdom had become refugees in that corner of the land. But neither the refugees nor the fresh armies of the south had any idea how to stop the invasion of the Turin, or even how to slow them down.

Chapter
74: Overhead

Count Michael Deliem and Lady Vye found a private chamber in the Castle Anuen. Michael’s face was red. The Lady’s eyes were red.

Michael closed the door once Vye stepped in. Even though he didn’t slam it, it was a heavy door, and it made a very assertive closing sound.

“How dare you?” Michael said, finally, the first words he had uttered since Vye’s confession. “How could you keep this from me?”

“I made a choice.”

“It wasn’t yours to make.”

“Your Grace, we’ve been lining up Kings and Queens. None of these are our decisions to make. None of these--”

“I am making the hard choices that someone has to make, Lady Vye, and if you have a problem with my course of action, you can speak up whenever you’d like.”

“I don’t have a problem with your course of action. I support your actions. I was desperate for you to finish the job. That’s why I didn’t want you distracted.”

“You think I would have done something differently? You think I would have abandoned the Kingdom?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. You and Landos, both of you, you become irrational, emotional fools where Sarah is involved. I couldn’t take that chance. I decided, for the good of the Kingdom--”

“You’re playing with my life!”

“You tell me, right now, that you would have kept going. You tell me, right now, that if I had told you that Sarah was missing, you would have finished the task. That you would have crowned Emily Brimford. If you can tell me that, I’ll back down.”

Michael kept his face angry, but could find no words to say.

“If you can’t, Your Grace, if you can’t say that, then I made the right call. I decided to keep you focused, and I may have sacrificed your wife in the process, but it’s a decision I can live with for the good of the Kingdom.”

“I can’t live with it.”

Vye took a deep breath and sighed. There was no magic that could help her now.

“We’re in over our heads, Michael,” Vye said, “We’ve had the weight of the world thrown on our shoulders and we don’t know what to do, but we have to do something.

“I don’t claim to know that I’m right. And it wasn’t an easy decision to make. But we need a leader. We need someone who can bring us through to the other side of this, and I swear to the Heavens I think it’s you. I don’t know anyone else who can gather the wills of Counts and Dukes and make them do his bidding. It’s just you, and we needed you. We needed a leader more than Sarah needs a husband.”

“If she dies, then all of this is for nothing.”

“That’s not--”

“To me, that’s how it will seem! I’ve set up Emily Brimford-- Emily Rone-- as the Queen. We have a united front now. They’ll follow her. I have to find Sarah.”

Vye walked up to Michael and drew her sword. She knelt down, putting the tip of the sword into the ground in front of Michael.

“In that case, I beg your forgiveness, and ask to come with you.”

“I may have no choice in the matter,” Michael said, and smiled. “I think you’re going to take me to her.”

Chapter 75: Heart of a Noble

At first, they thought he was a monster.

The kids were playing out by the stables, where they darned well knew they shouldn’t be playing, when they spotted him at a distance. They reported a grizzly beast. A thing of nightmares. What was such a creature doing in the sleepy farm village of Raingrove?

But when some of the town’s braver men gathered, pitchforks and scythes in hand, they could see he was no monster. He was a soldier. A Knight of the King, by his garb. A very injured Knight of the King. The right side of his face had been burned off, like someone had lit an oil lantern without closing the shutter. He trudged forward with a limp. And when he saw the others, he did not attack. He merely collapsed.

After a few days of expert care by the town apothecary, he looked much more human. The side of his face was irreparable. But with some rest and some water, he came to, and was coherent.

“What is your name, friend?” the healer asked of his patient.

“Where am I?” the Knight asked.

“Raingrove, in the County Deliem,” the healer answered, bringing water to the cot. “You must have been in the Prince’s escort, though that was days ago.”

“Yes, I was. And I failed.”

“I heard there was sorcery at work. What could you do against such villainy?”

“Keep fighting,” the man said, sitting up.

“Your Liege, please, you must rest.”

“I have rested long enough. And the sorcery you heard about is real. And it was used to kill the Queen, and then Prince Anthony.”

“What do you intend to do about it?”

“Serve justice to the enemy.”

“Are you sure you seek justice and not vengeance?”

“What’s the difference?”

“One leads to redemption. The other to damnation.”

The Knight was on his feet now, stretching his weary muscles. But he turned to the healer.

“I am so angry...”

“I know. And I’m just a lowly farmer, so pay me no mind. But if you insist on returning to the battle, after I have taken all the trouble to heal you, I just wish you would do it with a clear mind. Seek justice. Not vengeance.”

“You are right,” the Knight said. “And take it from me, there is nothing lowly about you.”

The Knight saw his sword and tunic by the cupboard. He began dressing.

“You never told me your name,” the healer said, retrieving his other belongings from the chest.

“I am Sir David Noble,” the Knight replied, “And I must return to duty.”

Chapter 76: Tapestries

Landos couldn’t remember anything but pain.

He’d been lying in the infirmary for more than a day. The words comfort and peace had left his vocabulary. He could only feel every single broken bone, every single bruised muscle, every single sharp breath.

And his mind was uneasy. Gabriel was dead. Almost forty guards also dead. Sarah was missing. The world was falling apart.

He couldn’t forget the pain with his eyes open. He couldn’t forget it with his eyes closed. He couldn’t take a deep breath. Another wave of unbearable pain came to him, and his eyes winced closed, and his breath was held, and he couldn’t remember his own name.

And then a hand brushed through his hair. Even with his eyes closed, and even without hearing or seeing or smelling anything, he knew it was a woman’s hand.

And then that woman kissed his forehead, and Landos was able to sigh a deep, full sigh.

“Sarah,” he whispered at the end of his breath.

“Lie still for a moment, Landos,” a woman’s voice said, but it wasn’t Sarah. It was Lady Vye.

Vye put her hand on Landos’ chest, right over his sternum, over his heart. And there was a warm, wonderfully relieving sensation that ran through his body, like the first sip of hot cider when coming in from the cold. Landos was able to open his eyes, and he saw Vye standing there, concentrating, with her hand glowing on his chest. And he could breath. And he could move. And he could see.

He saw Michael, Flopson, and Halmir standing at the entrance to the infirmary, watching Vye do her work. Landos smiled at them, but immediately turned to Vye.

“Did they hear me just now?” he whispered to Vye.

“No,” Vye whispered back, but her expression was stern.

Michael stepped in and spoke to Landos.

“Good to see you still breathing,” Michael said.

“Same to you,” Landos responded, feeling out his stiff muscles.

“Landos, I need to know what happened. Calvin filled me in on most of it, but I want to hear it from you.”

Landos began his account of the attack. He didn’t explain how, but he explained that he was running through the corridors with Sarah. He explained how he was blocked in the audience chamber, and that’s when Gabriel and most of the guards died in their defense.

“Describe the man who attacked you,” Halmir said, still waiting in the doorway.

Landos described a man of unspeakable power, tall, white haired and cloaked in a dark green thread. Halmir knew the description right away.

“That’s him,” he said. “You’re describing my Master, Argos. I am amazed that he left the protection of the Turinheld. He hasn’t done that since I’ve been his student.”

“We’re honored,” Michael scoffed. “Why would he come here?”

“According to your Lieutenant Landos,” Halmir continued, “to kidnap the Countess.”

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Michael said. “Sarah couldn’t be that important to him.”

“I think it’s that she’s important to you,” Landos said. Michael turned and looked at him. For the first time, Michael noticed that Landos was still in his nightclothes. In the same clothes he was wearing when the Castle was attacked.

“Well,” Michael said, “I’m going to get her.”

“No, wait,” Landos said, standing, stretching his muscles, “You can’t go.”

“Why not?”

“If Argos came for Sarah, then maybe it’s an attempt to get to you,” Landos said.

“That’s ridiculous,” Michael said, “He could have attacked me directly.”

“He did,” Vye said. “Or at least, one of his agents did.”

“That was less than an hour ago,” Michael said. “Hartstone was attacked last night.”

“Maybe they expected to find you here,” Landos said. “They don’t know that Halmir is helping us. They don’t know we can travel the way they can.”

“This is all speculation,” Michael said. “Unless Halmir knows of some way to clear it up for us, it won’t do us any good. I’m going to find Sarah.”

“I’ll go,” Landos said.

“What?” Michael snapped. Landos almost recoiled at Michael’s sharp expression.

“I just mean,” Landos said, “That you should keep working to unite the Kingdom.”

“They’re united already,” Michael said.

“Then you should lead them,” Landos continued.

“I’ve installed worthy leadership,” Michael said.

“You shouldn’t--”

“Can everyone leave the room please,” Michael said, turning away from Landos, addressing Vye, Halmir, Flopson, and the other attendants. They shuffled out in an uncomfortable silence.

“What am I going to do with you, Landos?” Michael’s voice was flat, bitter, with no volume but all the hate a man can have.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“You want to go on a rescue mission, Landos? You want to go find Sarah?”

“I just think that you shouldn’t go while there’s work to do. You shouldn’t abandon the Kingdom.”

“I’ve done more for the Kingdom today than most people do in a lifetime. I’ve filled my personal quota. What have you done today?”

“I almost died trying to keep her safe.”

“And now you want a second shot, right? You want to storm the castle and be her knight in shining armor, and maybe she’ll kiss you for it, and maybe she’ll look into your eyes and maybe, just maybe, she’ll decide she likes you better than me.”

“You never loved her.”

Landos regretted it the moment he said it. Michael regretted it the moment he punched Landos in the face.

“How dare you! Of course I love her.”

“No you don’t,” Landos said, holding the cut on his lip. “You wanted an alliance. You wanted a politically convenient wife. You wanted to have a pretty girl standing beside you, to make your little kingdom complete. But you don’t love her.”

“Just because I don’t wear my feelings on my sleeve doesn’t mean I don’t have them. I have to have some dignity if I’m going to be a Count.”

“You want to pull rank on me?” Landos’ emotions were coming to the surface now, too, and it was equally unprofessional. “You want to hang me? You want to draw and quarter me? Go ahead. Then I can see you in hell.”

“One more word out of your mouth… Landos, we’ve come a long way together, but you are trying my patience. I’ll forgive you for everything you’ve said here today, because you were hurt, and perhaps you weren’t thinking clearly.”

“How generous of you,” Landos said, in a way that hurt them both.

“In return, I ask you this,” Michael said, “If we all survive this, and are rewarded with the opportunity to live in peace, you will leave Deliem and never return.”

“That’s not fair,” Landos said.

“It’s more fair than you deserve. You shouldn’t have lusted after my wife. You have only yourself to blame.”

Michael turned and stalked out, not looking back. There were other places to go, and that was all he felt, at the time, that he needed to say to Landos.

---

Vye looked down at the corpse of Gabriel, embalmed and cleaned up on the stone slab of the morgue. She went over, in her mind, every conversation she had ever had with him. She thought of all the things she had said wrong. She thought of the right things she should have said, and she said them, in those conversations, as they replayed in her mind. It seemed that everything he had ever said was perfect, and everything she had ever said was stupid.

It didn’t help. When the tears cleared her eyes, he was still dead.

“I’m sorry, Master,” Vye whispered to his remains. She didn’t know what she was apologizing for, but she figured if someone had been keeping track, she owed him at least one, and she didn’t want to leave the debt unsettled.

Michael descended the stairs and stood quietly beside Vye, paying his respects to Gabriel. He had known the man all his life, since he had been just a boy in the Castle.

Michael noticed a bit of silk cloth in his pocket. That was new. Gabriel had never carried a handkerchief. He pulled it loose.

“Excuse me,” he called to the mortician, “What’s this?”

“Eh,” the mortician grumbled, still working on one of the dozens of dead guards, “Some piece of cloth he had in his hand when he died. Never seen it before. Figured it was his pocket napkin.”

Vye frowned, studying the piece. Not only was it not Gabriel’s style, it wasn’t even a style of art she was familiar with.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“This is from a famous tapestry,” he said. “It’s... hanging in the Castle Zenith. In the Caves of Drentar.”

“How did it get into Gabriel’s hands?”

And Michael put it all together.

“Because that’s where Argos took Sarah. Come on. We have to go.”

They ran up the stairs, right to the dining hall, where Halmir, Calvin and Flopson were having a quick supper. Michael explained where he was going.

“I’ll get some guards,” Vye said.

“Don’t bother,” Michael said. “This is a vanity mission. I can’t bring guards with me.”

“But we can’t go to the Caves without some protection,” Vye said.

“I’m hoping you’re all the protection I need,” Michael said. “We’re still at war. We can’t leave the castle unguarded. It’s just you and me.”

“I will also go,” Halmir said. “I feel somewhat responsible.”

Michael and Halmir looked at one another for a moment. His hand went absentmindedly to his abdomen, where the scar still decorated his body.

“Thank you,” Michael said, “Calvin,
you should be expecting a large army to arrive within the week.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Flopson,” Michael said, “You’re with me.”