The Collapsing Path (The Narrowing Path Series Book 3)

by David J Normoyle

  “Papa!” the girl shrieked.

  Leti pushed the child’s face into her shoulder. “Hush child, hush.” She rocked her back and forth.

  All the escay had been freed by now. “Get off the streets as fast as you can,” Bowe told them.

  Leti had by now clearly recognized Bowe as Iyra’s young man. She didn’t say anything, though; she just led the other escay in the opposite direction to the Fortress, continuing to rock the child into her shoulder.

  “How do we know this man is in the Guild?” Hoag asked.

  “I know from firsthand experience. If Stenesso wants more details, he can ask me directly,” Bowe replied.

  The marshal considered before seeming to find the information satisfactory and leaving.

  Toose watched Hoag follow Tealman and the other marshals. “This incident won’t damp down any rumors about you and the escay, Guardian.”

  Bowe figured that meant the rumors weren’t restricted to the Grenier family. What did his own marshals think about his actions? “I couldn’t do any different.”

  “Very well, Guardian. Shall we return then?”

  * * *

  Bowe had barely settled back into his chair in the small hall before Toose arrived to report that two people were outside and wanted to speak to him. “One is that Green you talked to a few times.”

  “And the other?”

  “An escay with swirling tattoos on his face. An old memory come back from the dead.”

  “Invite the Green in.” So Xarcon had been recognized. Bowe was too tired to think through the repercussions of the marshals knowing he was still alive. At least it wasn’t known that he was in the Guild. Turning Xarcon away would probably create as many questions as letting him in and Bowe had to assume it was important. “Then show in the other.” While he waited, the painted face on the Bellanger sun glared down. I’m doing my best, Bowe told it.

  The door opened. Instead of Coinal, it was Toose again. “Do you know where Sorrin and Thrace went?” he asked.

  “They aren’t here?” Sorrin and Thrace, like most ascor, hadn’t left their mansion since Hess’s attack.

  “No. They left while we were gone, taking some marshals, leaving Bellanger Mansion pitifully defended.”

  Sorrin was usually so careful. “I’m sure it was important.”

  “It better have been.” It was unusual for Toose to be even slightly critical of a Bellanger ascor.

  “At least we have plenty of guards again now that we have returned.”

  Toose grunted and left.

  When Coinal entered, his usual smile was marked absent. “I shouldn’t have trusted in you.”

  “You certainly shouldn’t.” Bowe didn’t know exactly what he had done that Coinal didn’t like, but he had never wanted to get the Green’s hopes up too much. “Were you not listening when I spoke on the first day of the Path. Don’t expect any help and you won’t be disappointed. Greens are on their own.”

  “I didn’t expect the Green Path to be easy. But I expected there to be a Path.”

  “The Green Path hasn’t stopped. Has it?” In all the mayhem, Bowe hadn’t even thought about what was happening with that.

  “The lists are no longer updated; no one cares. The word is that the Bellangers might have no Selects instead of three. And there’s talk that the whole thing will be abandoned.”

  “As far as I’m aware the rules of the Path remain the same. The Bellangers still have three Selects. But nothing is certain. Everything is up in the air.”

  “If no one is selected, it means that every single Green will die.”

  “I know what it means.”

  “I trusted you. You promised that you’d select me if I helped you.” Glum Coinal was a different person. What Bowe had liked most about the boy was how he could keep smiling despite his bleak prospects. Bowe supposed he couldn’t have expected it to last. Even in normal times, the Green Path tore everything good from the hearts of those who walked it.

  “I didn’t make any promises.”

  “So should I still be supplying you with information?”

  “I’ll do my best for you. That’s all I can say.”

  Coinal hesitated, looking glum. “I guess I’m damned either way. The Guild are attacking tonight.”

  “Where?”

  “I don’t know where, just that it’s happening.”

  Bowe would have to warn Toose to be extra vigilant, though he doubted Bellanger Mansion was the target. “Thank you.”

  Coinal seemed to be expecting more, but when nothing more was forthcoming, he backed to the door, then paused. “One of my friends was caught spying. He was killed by the Guild.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “I’ll do my best to keep helping you.”

  Bowe would select Coinal, he knew, if he could. But he had no idea if he’d get that chance. “Try not to lose your smile. The Path wants to suck dry those who walk it. Don’t give it your optimism and joy.

  “I’ll try.”

  After Coinal left, Bowe tried to figure out what was going on. Where was the Guild intending to attack? And where had Sorrin and Thrace gone—was it related? Before he had a chance to think too much, Xarcon entered, clicking the door closed behind him.

  Bowe invited him to sit, but instead Xarcon stood behind the chair and pressed his hand onto the back of it. “This room has changed a lot,” he said. “Is the Bellanger sun smiling or frowning?”

  “Depends on his mood. Right now he’s scowling. You shouldn’t have come here.”

  “I never thought I’d be back inside this place. After the last Infernam, I tried to feel that it was my home. And I almost succeeded in fooling myself. By the time I left, it was a prison, smothering me. Now it’s just a big empty house filled with pretty nothings.”

  “Even if you had to see me, why let yourself be recognized?”

  “The marshals were diligent in searching me. I didn’t manage to keep my face hidden.”

  “It better be important.”

  “You probably won’t think so. I’m just here to make a simple request.”

  “I have enough headaches to deal with.”

  “I came to ask—no.” Xarcon slid around the side of the chair and sat on the front edge of it, leaning towards Bowe’s desk. “I came to beg for mercy.”

  “Mercy? The Guild gave up their right to that after the massacre in Raine Mansion.”

  “I wasn’t part of that. But it’s not for the Guild I ask for mercy. It’s for everyone else.”

  “I can understand that.” Bowe was already starting that process. Or trying to. He’d still not heard from Eolnar.

  “When this fight between the Guild and the ascor is all over, the escay will need someone to stand for them?”

  “Once the Guild is no more, I’m sure things will calm down. The Grenier marshals will no longer be so harsh on the escay.”

  “Do you really believe that?”

  Bowe found that he didn’t. The distrust that the ascor felt for the escay would take a long time to heal. Something wasn’t making sense, though. “That was why you had to so urgently see me? To request that the ascor go easy on the escay after the Guild is defeated?”

  Xarcon nodded.

  By meeting Bowe, Xarcon would be causing as many problems for himself with the escay as he was causing for Bowe with the ascor. If he’d taken a bit of time, he could have organized a secret meeting between them. Unless he didn’t have any time. All at once, Bowe’s mind was fully alert, the weariness falling from him like a false skin.

  “Stay there,” he told Xarcon, springing to his feet.

  “No, I have to go.” Xarcon also rose.

  “No way. Don’t leave this room. It’s important. I’ll only be a moment.” Events were spiraling, and Bowe needed to figure out exactly what was going on.

  He looked for Toose, but first saw Zofila ascending the stairs. He shouted out to her.

  She swiveled, one foot resting on the corner of a higher step. “
What do you want?”

  “Do you know where Sorrin and Thrace went?”

  “Lessard Mansion.”

  All the time that Bowe had been waiting for word for Eolnar and instead the Lessard ascor had waited until Bowe was out of the mansion, then summoned his two lieutenants. “Do you know what for?”

  “Sorrin didn’t want to go, but he was persuaded that it was too important not to. I guess there wasn’t time to wait for you to come back.”

  “I fear it wasn’t me they wanted to talk to.”

  “Do you understand what it was about?” Zofila asked.

  “I fear I do.”

  Bowe returned to the small hall where Xarcon was hopping from foot to foot.

  “Sit,” Bowe ordered, walking around the desk and taking his own seat.

  “I really have to go.”

  “The attack on the Fortress won’t be until after full dark, surely.”

  “What?”

  “Sit.”

  Xarcon sat.

  “Let me tell you why I won’t be able to help with your request.”

  “What was that about an attack on the Fortress?”

  “I’ll get to that. First, about the subject of mercy for the escay. You see, I was already working to try and improve things for them. But it has exploded in my face.”

  “In what way?”

  “I discussed a more gentle attitude toward the escay with the Lessards and I was awaiting their response. I just received it. They want to deal with a new Bellanger Guardian.”

  Xarcon blinked. “I overheard one of your marshals saying that Thrace and Sorrin weren’t at home. They would never betray you.”

  “Their duty is to the Bellanger family first and foremost.” The Lessards wouldn’t have made a move unless they were sure. And there was one way Eolnar could not only be certain to persuade Sorrin and Thrace but also be sure that Sorrin could Bellanger marshals to switch allegiance to a new Guardian. “Did Coensaw ever tell you a story about the circumstances of my birth?”

  Xarcon shook his head.

  “Well, it suggests that I was born an escay. And a certain Lessard ascor whom I thought I could trust is no doubt telling Sorrin the story as established fact. Though the doubt alone is enough to have me ousted. Especially in our present environment of mutual distrust and fear between escay and ascor.” Bowe wasn’t sure if Eolnar was behind this, or if he had talked to his brother and Sorani was the one who’s come up with the plan. It didn’t matter much. As the finishing touch, Eolnar could remind Thrace how the escay had spared Bowe’s life at Raine Mansion. “So this is my last day as Bellanger Guardian. Now tell me about this attack. Why is Hess doing it?”

  “I don’t know anything about it.” Xarcon licked his lips. “You were going to tell me.”

  “I can tell you how I know. Before you arrived, I had knowledge that something would happen, but I didn’t know what. You had to talk to me urgently, couldn’t arrange a secret meeting, and talked of a time when the Guild would be defeated. That told me that you were a part of this attack, and that you expected the Guild to be defeated, and that you would likely be killed.”

  “That’s an awful lot of assumptions.”

  “So where would the Guild attack and have such a large chance of being wiped out? The Fortress, of course. I die free, one of the Guild attackers said when he breathed his last in Raine Mansion. It must be a concept that Hess has introduced, this idea that death is better than being an escay slave. So a suicide attack isn’t out of character. Will Hess be leading them tonight?”

  Xarcon shrugged. “Maybe that all makes sense in your head, but I don’t know anything about it.”

  “I could spread the word about what’s to happen. Even though you haven’t told me anything, the Guild would assume you had. You don’t seem to mind dying, but I don’t think you want to be known as someone who betrayed your cause.”

  “A threat? I came here to ask your help, and that’s what I get in response.”

  “You’re right, you don’t deserve that.” Bowe stood up, walked to the end of the small hall and back again. “This is all happening so fast. I need to do something but I don’t know what.”

  “Why do you need to do anything?” Xarcon asked. “If what you believe is true, then the Guild will attack and be wiped out. It’s a victory for your side.”

  “My side?” Bowe made a face. “Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? I’m an escay now.” Bowe sat down, then sprang up again. “What happens after the Guild is defeated? You fear that things won’t get better; that’s why you came to me. I asked a Lessard ascor, one of the more understanding ascor, to help me ease Stenesso’s whip hand, and I am now no longer a Guardian.” Bowe had a decision three years ago. Help the Jarindors, as Iyra wished, or help the ascor. His decision resulted in the defeat of the Jarindors. Would he make the same choice now, given what he knew? Bowe remembered the scaffold in Drywell Square, and found he couldn’t answer.

  “Hess obviously didn’t start this intending to lose,” Bowe said. “Why attack if he doesn’t think he can win?”

  “Hypothetically?”

  “Hypothetically.”

  “The Guild has been around awhile. And some of its members would have argued it had been too scared of the ascor. Hess and his faction, mainly Eye fighters, had no fear of death or even torture so they thought they could take the fight to the door of the ascor mansions. Hess didn’t fully think the consequences through the way Coensaw might have. It’s only now that he sees that it isn’t on his back that the scourge of the ascor response landed, but on the backs of all escay.”

  “So Hess and the rest of the Guild will openly attack the Fortress, expecting to be wiped out, hoping that their defeat will improve the lot of the ordinary escay.”

  “Yes. In the hypothetical instance we are discussing.”

  Bowe had met Hess and thought the man a monster, yet he was willing to bring the city back from the brink. The worst of the escay is better than the best of the ascor, Bowe thought, thinking of Eolnar. Bowe remembered his earlier discussion with Xarcon, how he’d shied away from the idea of allowing the chaos of Hess to take charge especially with an Infernam looming. What if things had become so bad that chaos, the absolute unknown, was better than the status quo? The ascor weren’t even preparing properly for the Infernam—they were confiscating supplies.

  “This time I really must go,” Xarcon declared.

  “What if Hess was to succeed?”

  “Impossible.”

  “I like those odds.” Bowe had spent weeks wrestling with the issue of getting the ascor to change. That was what impossible looked like. Storming the Fortress didn’t seem quite that insurmountable. “Most of the Grenier marshals will be at the Fortress. They’ll be ready and waiting. They might even be expecting something tonight.” Coinal had found out; the Grenier marshals were sure to have some spies. “But likely they don’t know exactly where. What if they thought the attack was somewhere else? We would need a diversion.”

  Bowe’s gaze roved around his office and fell upon the tapestry. The Bellanger sun had no expression now, neither happy nor sad. Instead it burned in a blue blaze of fire. Bowe’s eyes watered as he realized what he had to do.

  “After what happened in Raine Mansion, Stenesso committed to protect the other ascor mansions,” Bowe told Xarcon. “And I have one more evening of being Bellanger Guardian. Wait here.”

  This time Xarcon didn’t insist that he needed to leave. Bowe strode into the entrance hall. He saw Toose by the main door and called him over.

  “Yes, Guardian.”

  Bowe gathered his thoughts. “Do you trust me, Toose?”

  The skin above Toose’s nose crinkled as he thought. “It’s not about trust. You are the Guardian and I follow orders.”

  “Nevertheless, when I do things like I did today, nearly starting a fight with the Grenier marshals for no good reason, I’m sure you wonder if I’m doing the right thing. I can’t always explain why I give the o
rders that I do. So you will just have to trust that I’m acting to the benefit of the Bellanger family.”

  “Understood, Guardian.”

  “I need you to burn down the mansion.”

  “Come again?”

  “You’ll have to act on blind trust.” Bowe’s heart twisted as he looked at Toose’s perplexed expression. Bowe remembered he’d made a number of promises three years ago, and the only one he hadn’t broken was to betray Tealman. Well, he’d just done that, and now he was going to betray everyone loyal to him in his own family.

  Bowe’s hesitation was only momentary. He had made his decision, and he was going to follow through on that with as much authority as he could muster. He had to give everything to this plan, or he would surely fail. “Follow my orders exactly, Toose; I’m not going to repeat them.”

  “Yes, Guardian.”

  “Gather a few trusted marshals, and get all the lamp oil from the cellars. Start the fires near the back of the mansion where no one lives. Once they are burning, evacuate everyone out the front. Tell anyone who asks that the Guild are attacking. Then use the lamp oil to douse the rest of the downstairs part of the mansion and set that on fire. Understood.”

  “Yes, but...”

  “Go on?”

  “Should we try and keep the fire under control so that it can be put it out after?”

  Bowe shook his head. “Your job is to try and burn the mansion to the ground. Of course, later, when others try to put it out, don’t interfere.” Bowe patted Toose on the arm, feeling another twist inside him. “Never fear—the family will emerge stronger. A house can be rebuilt. Go now.”

  Bowe headed back toward the small hall. Before he got there, Zofila, on the second floor landing, called him over.

  “I can’t right—”

  “Come here,” she insisted.

  Bowe didn’t want to delay, but he couldn’t just walk away from Zofila. Not with what was about to happen. He ran up the stairs, then across the landing, slowing as he got close.

  Zofila took Bowe’s head between her two hands and kissed him on the forehead. Bowe stiffened. She couldn’t know what Bowe had just put in motion. But she had sensed something.