Raphael gave a troubled nod. "Of course you're right, Jess. It's really the only maneuver that makes sense. And all the more reason for us to get going, I suspect, on the off chance that any other agents of this Galeck are heading this way, now that we know that the chateau has been compromised."
Jess nodded. “Tactically sound, my friend, for all that I am sure you and Josie miss the comfort of silken sheets and feathered beds.” She flashed her softly chuckling comrade a teasing grin. “But considering that at least one guardsmen successfully fled these premises upon the captain’s defeat, to say nothing of the two men who wisely left the field without crossing blades with us, it is only prudent, I think, that we make our way to the capital with all haste.”
“A prudent plan, my mistress,” Twilight purred his approval. “For the wand and whatever horrors it promises can wait, so long as we prevent the Chalice from falling into play alongside it.” Twilight sighed. “I would have dearly loved some tuna, however.”
Jess grinned. “Head back to the entrance, as soon as you are done speaking with the seneschal, Raphael. Bring what papers you need, and I suppose it would be best if your servitors had a safe place to hide, as we have no idea when any of Galeck’s men might next return. In the meantime, Malek and I shall do a quick reconnoiter of the kitchen and pantry and assure no enemies lie in wait!”
Raphael laughed. "Some fresh provisions would be a good idea indeed, dear Jess. And yes, do not worry. It would be a poor lord indeed who did not have some means of shepherding his servitors safely away, should one's domain be in peril." Raphael exchanged a glance with the seneschal, who immediately bowed before him. "And after he has squared away the servitors, Dayton shall prepare and send off a report regarding the events that have occurred here, giving us an accurate account of the crimes of this Galeck, not to mention the former captain."
Jess grinned. "The very former captain." With Raphael's wry chuckle behind her, Jess grabbed Malek's arm, and together they scoured the chateau at a blistering pace, earning startled cries and tears of relief from many servitors both alarmed to see fierce looking blood-spattered warriors in their midst, and desperately relieved to find out that their tormentors now lay dead in the fields below.
“It looks like you two did a good job," Alex commended sometime later, happily gnawing on a roast turkey drumstick as the group watched Dayton hurry away the well provisioned and dazed staff to the small fishing village Raphael assured was less than a day’s distance away, from where they would have easy access to boats should trouble come looking, which all agreed was rather unlikely. “Still, I’m surprised you didn’t insist on bringing Dayton along to report to your father, Raphael.”
Raphael gave a rueful shake of his head. “Just one look at Jess and that idea wilted as soon as I had thought it.”
Jess blushed as her friends grinned or chuckled. “It just didn’t seem like a good idea. For all that I hope I successfully severed the strands compelling him to servitude, it would have been the height of folly from any strategic sense to let one who had been in the grips of something so vile have access to our sleeping forms in the middle of the night.”
Josie shivered. "When you put it like that." She gave Jess a speculative look, bemused smile playing across her features. "Thank the gods above that none of the servitors were permanently injured from their ordeal, as much as I'd like to beat some of those brutes senseless if you and Malek hadn't already slaughtered them on the field of battle, Jess. Still, when I looked at Dayton I could see the marks of a rather cruel and fierce binding having torn through his psyche. It would have taken a master healer endless hours to even hope to unknot it, and somehow, you managed to cut through it with but a moment's inspiration and a blood-covered knife." Almost of their own accord Josie's gentle fingers flowed upward to stroke Jessica's still fresh cut, overlapping a number of other fine scar lines, the origins of which Jess couldn't even recall.
Jess’s eyes widened, feeling a gentle pulse of healing energies from her friend. She did her best not to push the ivory white gossamer strands of energy away, for all that they tickled.
“Stop flinching like a baby, Jess.” Josie gave a satisfied nod. “There. That cut at least shouldn’t scar.”
Alex smiled. “It’s a shame your magics fall outside the recognized paradigms, Jess. A healer or enchanter that could do what you do would be a treasure for the college.”
Jess snorted. “Alex, I have no magics to teach. You know I’m no wizard!”
Jacob gave an affected sigh, leaning against his grinning lover. “She says this right after binding the entire chateau tight as the doors to Hades with her magics.”
The whole party chuckled softly at that even as Jess felt her cheeks heat up. “First of all, the doors to Hades are actually quite porous. Dark entities are pulling hapless souls from higher dimensions through all the time, sad as it is to say. Secondly, I didn’t cast any spell on the chateau, I just asked the wood to keep itself strong and tightly sealed until Raphael or I return. It recognizes us both, now, you see. It's not magic. Wood just likes me.”
“The wood likes you,” Josie said deadpan.
Alex flashed a bleak little smile. “And I’m guessing that chateau is now sealed so tight that a dozen knights with axes couldn’t chop through.”
Jacob rolled his eyes. “I won’t even ask how you know anything about Hades.”
Jess blinked, momentarily flustered. “We’re losing daylight, guys! Let’s make all haste for the forest. At least we know we’ll be safe from pursuit there.”
Alex laughed softly. "With sheltering pines always springing up before us the moment you speak of setting up camp, after making our way along woodland paths beside trout-laden streams I would swear come into existence only for you."
“Come Jess, let's go find ourselves this enticing stream Alex just mentioned. I'm sure we can tease a few trout from it," Twilight mused from her shoulder.
“Nature mage indeed,” Jera teased, as they made their way across the fields upon their freshly rested mounts, Jess and Malek both equipping themselves with fresh braces of Javelins and horse spears while retrieving their original armaments from the field of battle. Their group had gone oddly quiet, the gentle banter fading to silent alertness as they were forced to face the scene of so much death.
Jess and Malek exchanged grim smiles as they retrieved and cleaned their estocs and maces, resecuring their now dented and nicked shields, though Jessica’s seemed almost to shimmer under her gentle touch, fresh leaves sprouting from the center wooden shield boss even as Jess gave it a warm pat, hooking it to its saddle thong.
“Your shield is sprouting,” Jera noted deadpan, even as Jess flashed her a warm grin, quietly relieved to have her friends focusing more on the oddity of her shield than the grim reminder of just how savage she and her shieldbrother could be when thrust into the crucible of war.
“I know,” Jess acknowledged with a smile. “I shall have to plant her soon, by way of thanks for her valiant service, so she may savor once more the feel of sunlight caressing her leaves, the patter of raindrops quenching thirsty roots as she grows tall and strong once more.”
Jera nodded. “And that’s why your wooden shield holds up as well as steel would.”
Jacob grinned. “I guess it has something to live for.” He then gave a thoughtful frown, peering at Jera’s buckler. “It looks like your little shield has something to live for as well, my dear Jera.” He laughed as Jera gazed at her own buckler, several rich green leaves just beginning to unfurl from its center. She gazed nonplussed even as her friends quietly chuckled.
“Come on guys, we’re wasting time!” Jess took the lead back up the winding road at a trot, seeking to avoid Jera’s thoughtful gaze for as long as possible.
It was then that they heard the screams just around the curvature of the road ahead.
16
Jess understood instantly the significance of the scream. She quickly turned back, catching the alarmed gazes of h
er friends. “Alex! Lead the others back! Set up a defensive wind ward in the field below, have Jera back you as before!”
His nostrils flared but he nodded. “Somehow, he knew we were here. If he has heavy cavalry, you’re at a disadvantage fighting uphill, Jess.”
“Let us worry about that, Alex. Now move!"
Alex gave an abrupt nod, immediately turning his stead about, gesturing for the others to follow.
“What in the gods is going on? Shouldn’t we be rushing forward to help?” Jacob started to curse, even as Malek glared with an abrupt shake of his head.
“No time, Jacob! Go down and backup Alex and Jera! Leave Jess and I to handle the rest.”
Josie’s troubled gaze lingered in Jessica’s mind even as she breathed a sigh of relief, knowing her friends wouldn’t be caught completely off guard now. Alex would be able to maintain a defensive ward in the clearing below, the gentle slope the road wound up would have hampered his wind magics. Jess and Malek exchanged knowing glances.
Of course the screams were genuine. Well could Jess recognize the tortured cries of Rolin and the broken ragged moans of Neltose, the two soldiers they had bested and interrogated, whom Jess had begun to pity despite herself, particularly Rolin, who had fawned so desperately before Raphael, trying so hard to redeem himself in her friend's eyes, out of fear and a desire for approval both. Jess snarled. She was no fool. Exceedingly well trained in even the ugliest aspects of warfare, she understood at once that she and her companions were being baited deliberately by whoever lay in ambush ahead.
“Twilight.”
“Already on it, Jess.” Her cat flew off her shoulders, leaping to the ground effortlessly for all that she was on horseback, racing ahead as Malek and Jess readied themselves, doing their best not to be affected by the increasingly desperate screams, the barely discernible cries for mercy.
Within moments her familiar returned, ears tilted back in extreme distaste. "None other than Galeck Borson himself, dressed like a bloody popinjay, behind six rather well armed and armored horsemen, all with steel-tipped lances, ready to charge forward the moment we reveal ourselves."
Jess nodded curtly. “The source of the screaming?”
“Infernal magics,” Twilight hissed. “He is using the dark arts to strip the flesh from their bones, and taking his time in doing it.”
Jess shuddered, turning to Malek even as she dropped her spear.
“Jess, what the hell?” Jess shook her head, Malek silencing himself at once.
“Six heavy cavalry, lances at the ready. And Galeck." Jess grimaced. "He's an infernalist, Malek. And well-versed in the dark arts. So potent, in fact, that he's using them freely to torture his victims, trying to draw us out."
"Bloody hells," Malek hissed, even as Jess unsheathed her cavalry saber, focusing herself as she drew it slowly across her cheek.
Malek shook his head. “I know you have your reasons, but I hate seeing you cut yourself.”
Jessica’s smile was bleak. “It’s not just about the battlefrenzy, Malek. The blood has its own uses, as you well know.”
“I know, Jess. What’s the plan?”
Jess focused a moment, channeling her racing thoughts into icy clarity, even as time itself seemed to slow down to her odd perceptions. "They will charge at us in pairs. Three sets of two, once Galeck gives the word. I'm using my saber for obvious reasons. If you use spear be prepared to drop it immediately after the first wave and pull out your estoc or mace, but you'll probably pass the second two pairs before you have a chance to use it. We'll charge Galeck, and take him down together."
Jess took a deep breath as the gentle breeze tousled stray locks of hair about her helmeted head, focusing on the battle to come. “We can only hope that in taking out Galeck, we sever his ties to those men. Yet for all we know, they fight for coin and are under no compulsion at all. But either way, we battle for our lives, so we fight to kill anyone who raises blades against us.
Malek cursed softly, checking his shield as Jess did her own, giving a nod seconds later. “I know your gifts with all things wood, Jess. Once we break through, I’ll follow your lead with Galeck, or try to flank him.”
Jess flashed her shieldbrother a fierce grin, and upon her signal, the two charged around the bend to face whatever awaited them beyond.
Some hundred yards ahead sat an elegantly attired man of middling years. His sandy-haired features might almost have been handsome were it not for his pitiless stare, eyes sparkling like chips of ice, utterly devoid of all mercy or compassion. His supercilious smile registered clearly even at this distance, as he sat astride his mount behind six heavily armed and armored lancers gazing at Jess with deadly focus, lances held at the ready.
Instantly, Jess made out the source of the desperate cries she had heard, even as Galeck seemed to gaze almost fondly at the two naked men kneeling before his steed. Faces wearing awful masks of agony and compulsion, the two mutilated men were screaming as they gazed down in horrified disbelief at their own shaking hands slicing and peeling away long strips of their own bleeding flesh. As one their heads snapped up, locking their tormented gazes with her own.
Rolin and Neltose. Jess felt her stomach lurch, sickened by the horror before her. For all that she had felt such fury towards them before, her gut now twisted with unbearable pity. She could just barely make out the dark strands of power connecting the writhing men to the arrogant noble gazing at Jess even at that moment, his bright red lips curling up into a mocking smile. Oddly, his eyes seemed to widen in momentary surprise as she and Malek burst upon the scene. Had he not expected her to charge forth after goading her by torturing his captives? Jess grimaced, forcing herself to focus on the more immediate danger at hand.
Six well armed and armored horsemen equipped with sabers as well as lances stood between her and Galeck, all gazing at her with the eyes of professional soldiers. She sensed no dark strands of power compelling the soldiers to work for this sadist. Instantly she loathed them, understanding at once that they were perfectly willing to watch and serve a master who would cause such torments to his victims, so long as they were paid. For all she knew, they were diabolists themselves.
Galeck dipped his head. "You children led me on a merry chase, Jessica de Calenbry, Malek de Sousel. How pleasing it is to find you both, and still in such remarkable health." He then gazed almost fondly at the two screaming men fixated upon Jess with their pleading eyes. "These two dogs have sadly proven to be an inconvenience, having foolishly revealed to you that which should have remained hidden. You and your peers were supposed to be quite comfortably subdued at this point, constrained and delirious on poppy extract, awaiting my pleasure." Galeck chuckled softly to himself. "It really would have been best for you, were such the case. Your compulsions would have been gentle. So gentle, in fact, that you wouldn't have even known you were mine."
Jess snarled, doing her best to reign in her mounting sense of outrage, realizing how little she truly understood what was going on.
She licked her lips and forced herself to speak in the firm, clear voice expected of a Squire during battle, as Eloquin had taught. "So. You did seek to capture us unawares, once we had arrived at the chateau. How did you even know we were heading this way?"
A mocking chuckle. "Ah, child. Must you shout? Do you truly fear me so greatly? And do you really think I will give up my secrets to you that easily? No, my dear Jessica. It matters not how I was able to deduce your location. What matters is only that you and your companions have followed the path that I have set out for you, dancing along merrily to my tune. And now it is time for the first act of our play to end, child, and for things to take their natural course."
Galeck’s smile was one of dark triumph as his suddenly soft, murmuring voice seemed to carry effortlessly through the air. It felt almost as if he were whispering into her ear directly. “Sheath your blade, Jessica de Calenbry, and submit to my will.”
Jess grimaced as she felt the honey laden words try to squirr
el themselves inside her brain. Almost of its own accord, her wrist snapped her blade out reflexively, a gesture that she was sure looked like sheer bravado as much as anything else. Malek’s growled fiercely, shaking his head like a hound.
Jess smiled, even as Galeck hissed, fixing Jess with a puzzled stare.
“No doubt you compelled someone to write a document authorizing you to claim custody of Raphael, or so I would surmise," Jess said. "l can even take a guess as to why. If you were able to seize Raphael at the college, you could use him as leverage against his father. You even went so far as to corrupt the staff at the diOnni chateau, which means you and your cohorts put a lot of thought into this maneuver. My question is, why bother? If you are so skilled at manipulating others to dance to your tune, why are you not having your way with the purse strings of the diOnni clan at this very moment, ensconced within the capital as their favored guest, living a life of hedonistic luxury? why even bother taking Raphael as leverage?"
Galeck's cold eyes flashed, even as cruel lips twisted into a snarl. "You speak of issues beyond your comprehension, child. And whatever claims the Plaga clan may have upon you, I will not tolerate your insolence! Now sheath your blade, dismount from your horse, and kneel before me!"
What was before a gentle breeze of compulsion had become a storm of focused demand. Cold and relentless as a winter gale, it sought to freeze all resistance, to break Jess into submission. Jess grimaced as she sensed the icy compulsion attempt to steal within her mind. Her saber, slick with the blood from her own throbbing cheek, snapped out once more, slicing through the air so fast it was a blur. Galeck blinked and hissed, Jess coldly certain he hadn’t even noted the flash of her blade, nor what it signified.
Jess chuckled softly, wanting to keep Galeck off balance for as long as she could, to learn from him as much as she could, before she and her shieldbrother were forced to roll the dice once more.
Shadow Knight Page 40
