He turned to young man in the seat opposite him, Lem Copperwright. The man had been rigid in his insistence, affirming that he and his sister were blameless. One look at him now made it clear that he at least was no threat at all. Each time the commander looked in his direction, Lem shrunk from his gaze. They’d ridden in silence. Anrack hadn’t even bothered to tell the man why he’d been brought along, and out of raw intimidation, Copperwright hadn’t asked.
As if sensing he was on the commander’s mind, Lem shuddered vaguely and shut his eyes tight. After a moment, the trembling stopped and he raised his head. He looked Anrack in the eye with an expression alien to his face: confidence, bordering on impatience.
“Anrack,” he said.
The commander glared at him.
“You will address me as Elite Commander An—”
“Feh! Elite Commander nothing. Answer me this, Anrack. Why are you and I the only ones in this carriage?”
“I do not require any additional men to escort someone such as you.”
“I’m not so sure about that. After all, your men can at least follow a simple order. What did the message say, Anrack? I’ll tell you what the message said. 'Elite Commander Anrack, Desmeres Lumineblade’s location has been identified. He is preparing a trap at the mouth of the Cave of the Beast. It has become clear that success will require additional leverage. Bring Genara Copperwright’s father and brother. Their presence will remove her as a liability and act as a significant bargaining chip.'”
“How did you know—”
“I repeat, father and brother. And yet you’ve only brought her brother. How could you fail to follow so simple an instruction?”
“What is this—” he said.
“Answer the question, Anrack.”
“I will not bring an elderly and infirm man to a battlefield.”
“Oh no? And yet you’ve come along.”
“I will not—”
Lem moved like lightning, knocking Anrack back and grabbing his throat, rendering him silent.
“You listen to me, you dolt. The Copperwrights were my contingency plan, in the event Genara got away from me. And she has. Yet what do I find? You’ve made your own foolish decision and countermanded my specific instructions. Think. The goal is to break her. To make her do as I say even if I am not in control of her. What do you think will do the job better? Seeing her healthy young brother at our mercy? A man who might resist us, or at least understands what is happening? No! You were supposed to bring her father. A simpering, confused, frail old man who cannot even grasp what is being done or why!”
He squeezed harder, Anrack struggling but unable to break his grip.
“I swear to you, I would have conquered this world twice already if not for empty-headed, short-sighted fools second-guessing my decisions. But fortunately I’ve learned all I care to learn, so there is no sense remaining in the shadows, attempting play the game at a distance. Today, I take command.”
He shut his eyes and Anrack felt something he’d never felt before. It was a pressure, a will that was not his own. He tried to harden himself against it, to tighten his will and hold against the invasive influence. It was pointless. He hadn’t the experience to offer more than a cursory defense. A cold, clear intellect insinuated itself into his mind, rummaging through his memories and throwing him aside. He became a passenger, a prisoner in his own mind. The last thing he felt before his consciousness slipped to the back of his mind entirely was the grip around his neck loosening.
As Anrack’s body was taken, Lem’s body was returned. The coldness and calm left his expression and he threw himself back, terrified at what had happened to him, and what he was doing now.
“You will be silent and you will obey. You’ve had a glimpse of what I can do to you, and I assure you, it is the least my abilities,” stated Anrack, his voice now flavored by a familiar intellect and attitude. “I am not interested in you, and for that matter, I am not terribly interested in your sister. But she remains the best and most direct way to achieve what I am interested in. So you will do as I say, be a good little bargaining chip, and you may well survive this ordeal and return to your pointless little life.”
Lem nodded and huddled into the corner.
Anrack held up his hands and looked them over, disgust in his expression. “Why is it that power so often finds its way into hands far past their prime. Just once I would like to take command of an army and do so within a body that didn’t rely so heavily upon my own talents to keep it vital and relevant.”
He unfastened the door latch and threw it open. Frigid wind scoured the inside of the carriage. He peered into the distance.
“At least you were punctual,” he said.
A mounted soldier guided his steed alongside the carriage.
“Is there something wrong, Commander?” the soldier asked.
“No. Keep going. Left at the next crossroad and left again at the fringe of Melorn woods. The lumber road to the north will get us through to the mountains most quickly. We cannot afford to waste any more time. Our targets are unsteady. The longer we wait, the more time they’ll have to prepare for our arrival.”
“I will spread the word.”
He shut and fastened the door.
“Now, there comes the issue of how best to use you,” Anrack said. “Your sister loves you unconditionally, and vice versa. That would serve me quite well if it was your sister who knew what I needed. But the target is Desmeres. And though there is something between them, I would not call it love. A pity. Love is wonderfully useful. If I’d anticipated this need, I may just have allowed Trigorah to survive. But no sense dwelling on missed opportunities. Let us instead celebrate the options still available.”
#
“Genara, you need to stay calm,” Desmeres said, pulling the last of his bandages tight and silently cursing his inability to secure any proper healing potions.
“Oh, shut your mouth,” she snapped, stalking back and forth beside the fire. “You’ve caused enough trouble already. This is your fault.”
“I won’t argue with you.”
“Of course you won’t. Because it’s inarguable.”
“No, because it won’t move us any closer to a solution. Now listen carefully. You need to go.”
“Go! Like hell I’ll go. That note he had me write instructed the Elites to bring my family here. They are in danger because of me and because of you.”
“That’s why you need to leave. You are marked with the sigil—he won’t be able to take control of you anymore. Here you’ll be a liability. He’ll use them to manipulate you. But if you aren’t here, he’ll have no use for them.”
“Then he’ll kill them! Don’t tell me he won’t. And don’t even pretend you are sending me away for my own good or for their own good. You’re doing this to protect yourself.”
“I’m doing it because the fewer tools Epidime has to work with, the greater chance we’ll have to defeat him.”
“I am not leaving the fate of my family in your hands. You’ll do whatever it takes to achieve your goal. When you’re fighting for the world, that’s all well and good, but keeping them safe is not your goal, is it?” She held up her bandaged hand. “Do you think for a moment I believe you’d branded me with the sigil to protect me? You were trying to lock Epidime inside me.”
“He wouldn’t have allowed that, and I knew it.”
“But you’d hoped it would have worked, didn’t you? You’d hoped that I would become his prison and you could deal with him like any other foe. I notice you tested it on me instead of you.”
Desmeres gritted his teeth. “You wanted to be important, right? You wanted to be a hero? You wanted to make an impact, to save the world? Well, this is what it takes. If Epidime had not escaped before the sigil took hold then yes, the world would have been safe from him, and you would have been responsible. That’s what being a hero is. We destroy ourselves. We destroy each other. It is the nature of heroism to lose everything that matters to
us to protect everything and everyone else. And heroes do not always get their just reward. Not all heroes are celebrated. Most are forgotten, or were never even known. It is the worst fate in the world to be a hero, and only a fool would choose it. But heroes are necessary. The sun rises and sets because a thousand nameless heroes did the right thing at the right time. Lain will forever be remembered, if at all, because he was the monstrous assassin known as the Red Shadow. His sacrifice to save the other Chosen and protect this world meant everything at the time, but means nothing to the people it saved.
“I haven’t lied to you and I don’t intend to start now. I can’t guarantee your family will survive. I can’t be certain you or I will. But I promise you that I will not stop until I’ve done everything I can to ensure Epidime has been dealt with as thoroughly and permanently as possible. This is why Oriech called upon us. We are pawns in the hands of fate and this is the gambit. You have to be willing to lose it all or it is already lost.”
“That’s easy for you to say. What are you risking but your own life? You aren’t going to have to watch as your family is used against you.”
“What have I got to risk but my own life? Anything I might call a home is now either destroyed or due to be ransacked. I’ve already lost the woman I love. My own son doesn’t know me. The last of my possessions rode off with you. Since you shortly after became compromised by Epidime, I can’t imagine they are safe.”
Genara crossed her arms and looked Desmeres in the eye. “I’m not going. I’m not leaving you here to deal with this yourself.”
“So be it,” he said.
He grabbed a shovel and began to bury the fire in snow.
“So be it? That’s it?”
“We don’t have much time. I don’t intend to waste it arguing. Help me pack up camp. I want to be to the Cave of the Beast by sunrise.”
“What will we do when we get there? How will we deal with the fact he’s brought hostages?”
“I haven’t a clue what we’ll do, but we’ve got until we get there to figure it out.”
She sighed and stomped over to the tent to tug at the supports and begin to collapse it. “A thousand nameless heroes doing the right thing at the right time… How exactly do they know it is the right thing?”
“Ah. There’s the real secret. You never know until after it’s done.”
#
Days later, Desmeres stood at the mouth of a cave squeezing the reddened bandages wrapped about his burned hand. As confident and sure of himself as he appeared to be, the current circumstances had pushed his body and mind to the limit. The pain of his hand was useful, something sharp and clear to focus him. It was a reminder of how much had gone wrong already, and the price of mistakes.
He tugged the hood of his cloak forward and turned to the mouth of the cave that would serve as his final battleground if all went well. There was no mistaking it. The Cave of the Beast was at one time the threshold to greatness in the minds of the wizards and warriors who sought it. Thousands of the finest minds and bodies of the Northern Alliance and beyond had tested themselves against this treacherous place. That so few returned, and none with tales of victory, made it clear any who would venture into the cave should be given due notice of the dangers they would face. Signs, faded by time, warned in no uncertain terms that death waited inside. Some attempt had been made to list the names of the adventurers who had been lost to the cave, to make it something of a tomb in honor of their memory. All that remained of those well-meaning monuments were a few small stones, cluttered with carved names from the cave’s earliest days.
Desmeres knelt beside an icy trickle of water that flowed from the mouth of the cave and ran his fingers across largest monument stone.
“Well I’ll be… Cresh carved his own name here…” he mused.
Another monument of sorts waited at the mouth of the cave as well, this one far more recent. Crates of supplies, some used up and some ravaged by woodland creatures, sat under the ragged canvas of a worn tent. For months this had been the home of a sequence of Elite soldiers waiting for Myranda and Lain to leave the Cave. And now the Elite would return.
The sound of an approaching horse drew his attention. He turned and drew his sword, but the figure that appeared from among the trees was Genara. Both she and her horse looked exhausted. The steed had been stripped of all supplies to better speed its journey, and Genara’s clothes showed the telltale tears and punctures of someone who had ridden through her share of low branches rather than find a safer path.
“Any luck?” Desmeres asked.
“I did my best. We’ll see if it will do any good,” she said. “The Elites are near. They’ll be here any moment. Are you ready for this?”
He rolled his neck and adjusted his bandage. “As ready as one can be for this sort of thing. Are you ready?”
“Not nearly, but I don’t imagine that makes much of a difference.”
“Just be strong, and remember what depends upon this. If we don’t stop Epidime, yours is only the first of many families that—”
“Don’t… I don’t need to be reminded of that. It never leaves my mind.”
“Then you are ready.”
They stood firm, side by side, and waited as the beating hoofs of a half dozen horses and the rattling wheels of a carriage thundered toward them. Desmeres held his sword stead as the mounted soldiers formed a half-circle around them. Genara kept her stiletto low but ready, visibly conflicted at the prospect of wielding a weapon against her own nation’s soldiers. The carriage rumbled to a stop and the door opened. A lean young man tumbled out the door, heaved from within. He struck the ground hard and began to pull himself to his hands and knees. It was Lem, alive and at a glance none the worse for wear except for the lumps taken during the fall.
Genara took a step forward, but six swords rang as they slipped free of their scabbards, ready to strike her down if she took another step.
“Lem, are you hurt?” she called.
“Not yet, Genara,” called Anrack from within the carriage.
He stepped out, dropping a boot heavily on the back of the fallen civilian to keep him down.
“But that can change quickly if you give me a reason,” he said.
“Commander Anrack,” Desmeres said. “How nice to see you again. I see you’ve lost your limp, and your face has healed nicely.”
It was true. For the first time since he’d taken command, Anrack was standing tall and steady without the aid of his cane. The burns on his face had entirely healed, and the scars had even faded significantly.
“What’s that I used to say? An injury is a reminder of where we’ve fallen short? A motivation to not make the same mistake again? As artful and poetic as the sentiment is, it was a foolish and self-destructive policy. One of many I intend to reverse. You could learn from my flexibility and perhaps rethink the poor decisions you were clearly ready to make. Begin by dropping your weapons.”
“Do these men know who you really are? Do they know why you’re really here?” Desmeres asked, slowly and deliberately dropping weapon after weapon on the ground.
“That you are under the control of a demon who was responsible for the Perpetual War?” Genara added.
“They are soldiers in the Alliance Army. They follow orders. The Perpetual War has illustrated that the source of those orders barely matters at all. And spurious claims of my being usurped by an otherworldly force are laughable and easily dismissed. But you and I can discuss such things shortly. At the moment—” He gave Lem’s back another stomp. “—Genara and I have matters to discuss.”
“What do you want from me to let my brother go?” Genara asked.
“Ah. The woman cuts straight to the point. The sign of a fine negotiator, or at least a skilled haggler. Before we start our bargaining, though, please recall the note you penned. Due to disobedient underlings your father is not here to join us, but rest assured his life is also on the bargaining table. At the moment, he is in the care of your neighbors in
Verril. Orders have been left to throw him in the dungeon if I do not send word otherwise. For the healthiest man, the dungeon is a slow death sentence. For your frail father, it is a rather swift one.”
“You are mad… What is to be gained by threatening my family? I don’t have the knowledge you seek, Desmeres does. What do you expect me to do?”
“That, my dear, is your problem to solve, not mine.”
“What assurance do I have that my family won’t be harmed if I do as you say?”
“None whatsoever,” Anrack said. “But you have every assurance that they will be killed if you do not obey, for abetting a traitor.”
Genara gritted her teeth and looked to the soldiers holding their weapons at her. “You follow this monster? You serve this monster?”
“In the pursuit of those who would discard their loyalties and abandon the throne, we must harden ourselves to the distasteful tasks required to bring justice and stability to our land.”
“Justice and stability nothing! He doesn’t care about the queen or the kingdom. He wants to find his way through this cave for his own purposes! If you want Desmeres, if you want to bring him to justice, take him. Take us both!”
The soldiers remained firm. Anrack grinned.
“Elite is not simply a name. What you have here are men quite comfortable with not knowing the full context. It is not for them to decide if what I am doing is proper.” He reached down and hoisted Lem from the ground with ease and drew his sword. “Now, if you open your mouth to do anything but breathe and comply, we shall both have blood on our hands.”
Genara squeezed her weapon tightly for a moment, but bowed her head and let it fall to the ground.
“Inside the carriage,” Anrack ordered.
The Redemption of Desmeres Page 35
